When it comes to hiring practices, companies should not discriminate against employees based on things like their religion, their ethnic background or their gender. These are just a few examples of common protected classes. All employees deserve the same chance to apply for a new job.
Decades ago, discrimination would be very obvious. Some companies may say that they refused to hire women or African-American workers. This is no longer accepted under current laws, however, making it illegal for companies to engage in this practice.
Have attitudes changed?
The problem with these legal changes is that they may alter what companies and corporations are allowed to do, but they don’t necessarily change the attitudes that led to those actions in the first place. If a CEO doesn’t want to hire workers who are in protected classes, rather than begrudgingly doing so to be in line with the law, they may just attempt to hide the discrimination.
One example of this is when a company posts a job description saying they want to hire a “digital native” or a recent college graduate. Both of these terms refer to young people, as the majority of college graduates are in their 20s and digital natives are people who grew up with technology. Although the company isn’t overtly saying that they won’t hire someone who is 45 years old, this could just be thinly veiled age discrimination.
If you have faced any discrimination on the job, it may be a violation of your rights as an employee, and you need to know about the legal options you have.