The EEOC

Small Business and The EEOC

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws prohibiting employment discrimination. The EEOC ensures that businesses are complying with anti-discriminatory laws that make it illegal to discriminate against employees or job applicants based on their gender, race, religion, color, sex (including pregnancy), disability, age (40 and over), or genetic information. The EEOC has the power to investigate any claims of discrimination to determine if any reasonable cause exists to validate the accusations. The commission works with employees and employers to resolve disputes; but if a resolution cannot be made, they have the ability to file a lawsuit on behalf of the employee (EEOC, 2012).
After reviewing the coverage section on the EEOC website, I was surprised to find that businesses with less than 15 employees (under 20 employees for age discrimination) are not covered by the laws enforced by the EEOC. One would think that all businesses are forbidden from discriminating against all employees, regardless of the businesses’ size. This means that even if an employee had irrefutable evidence that his/her termination was based age discrimination, if the company had less than 15 employees, the employer would not be held liable by EEOC laws. It is truly unfortunate that these employees are not protected by the EEOC as discrimination can and do occur in companies with fewer than 15 employees. The EEOC laws were established to protect various classes of individuals from all types of job discrimination; thus all businesses should be protected even if they only have two employees (EEOC, 2012).
Another thing that stood out to me is that in order for an employee to be covered by the EEOC laws, they have to be with the company for at least twenty calendar weeks before they can file a claim against an employer. Therefore, within 20 weeks of being hired, an employer may be discriminated against for different reasons and the employer won 't be held accountable for their action. In addition, “People who are not employed by the employer, such as independent contractors, are not covered” (EEOC, 2012).
One reason why small businesses are treated differently by the EEOC is because they lack the resources that most large businesses have. Business with less than 15 employees often lack human resources departments or specialized Equal Employment Opportunity staff (EEOC) to assist with employment needs (Fitting, 1997). As a result, it is harder for smaller businesses to obey the laws enforced by EEOC. Let’s examine the following scenario: You’re an entrepreneur with 10 employees. One of your key employees is pregnant and is experiencing some complication so her physician suggested bed rest. She will have to take a month off in addition to maternity leave. You are now in a tough spot. You can’t afford to hire and train a temporary employee to do her job. What do you do? These are the decisions smaller business owners are faced with daily. With only 10 employees, the employer would be forced to give the pregnant employee an ultimatum- return to work or lose her job. According to the guidelines issued by the EEOC, the employer would have the option to insist that the employee to return to work, as the laws enforced by the EEOC do not protect small businesses with less than 15 workers.

References
Fitting, B. (1997). New EEOC guidelines pose problems for small-business employer. The Business Journal - Central New York,11(12), 1. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login? url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/219295104?accountid=3783
N.d. (September 2014). Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/index.cfm

References: Fitting, B. (1997). New EEOC guidelines pose problems for small-business employer. The Business Journal - Central New York,11(12), 1. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login? url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/219295104?accountid=3783 N.d. (September 2014). Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/index.cfm