Human Resource Blog

Title VII Basic Information for Workshop

My supervisor told me that I need to learn more about Title VII so that I can speak to some of our managers about it. Can you please tell me some basics that I should know for a short workshop that I will be conducting next week?

Sure. Title VII is a federal document that is in place to protect the rights of employees across the country. As such, Title VII applies to employers in all states. Basically, Title VII is a document that prohibits employers from discriminating against employees and job candidates based on their race, color, national origin, religion, or sex (gender). Title VII is overseen and enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC.) This commission handles all complaints that are filed against an employer based on the grounds of discrimination.

Not all companies are subject to Title VII requirements. In fact, only those employers that have 15 or more employees working for them for each working day over a period of 20 or more weeks.

When it comes to the specific definitions of what constitutes discrimination, it is important to take a look at each of the different discrimination types differently. It may be especially helpful for you to review these discrimination categories if you are going to be conducting a workshop. Here is a brief definition of each category:

Religious discrimination – this involves discriminating against someone based on his or her religion. Employers may also not discriminate against religious-affiliated garments, unless the discrimination is based on health and safety issues in the workplace.

Sex (gender) discrimination – this involves discriminating against an employee based on his or her gender, and may be related to issues related to pregnancy discrimination or sexual harassment issues. Pregnancy discrimination is prohibited by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

Race discrimination – this is discrimination based on someone’s skin color or even national origin in some cases.

National origin discrimination – you may not discriminate against someone based on their ethnicity, physical, linguistic, or cultural traits as they relate to a particular ethnic group.  

Keep in mind that as an employer, you may not discriminate by:

Refusing to hire an employee for sex, race, national origin or other covered characteristics

Terminating an employee based on his or her sex, race, national origin or other covered characteristics

Basing an employee’s wage or compensation on his or her race, sex, national origin or other covered characteristics     CB