Short Paper / Case Study The purpose of this assignment is to review the US equal employment opportunity commission’s website, specifically the section regarding laws as they apply to small businesses. The EEOC is a five-member body appointed by the president to establish equal employment opportunity policy under the laws it administers, which are: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Pay Act (EPA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act (which prohibits federal-sector discrimination against persons with disabilities), and Title I (the employment provisions) of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (Twomey | Jennings, pg 827).
Before we can begin to determine any of these laws we must first ask ourselves, what constitutes a small business? According to the SBA.gov (Small Business Administration) website, to determine whether a business qualifies as small, the business owner must be able to answer “yes” to the following questions:
Is your business independently owned and operated in the United States?
Is your business operated on a for-profit basis?
Does your business make a significant contribution to the US economy by paying taxes or using American products, materials or labor?
Does your business meet the numerical size standard for its industry?
(Clement’s, T., 2012)
I personally feel that these four questions could possibly be answered in a number of ways. For example, when asking if a business is independently owned and operated in the United States, unless a person(s) is opening a franchise such as: Starbucks, McDonald’s, etc. then yes the business will be independently “owned”. The next question asks if the business is operated on a for-profit basis. Any individual opening a business (unless it’s charitable) then it will be for-profit. The third question is asking if the business makes significant contributions to the economy by paying taxes or using