Discrimination In The Workplace

Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. In the workforce, the issue of racism and discrimination has been brought to the center of conversations around the world. Companies claim to be “colorblind” and not hire somebody based on their race or gender, but the employment rates among minorities and women around the world is significantly lower than the majority in the given country. There is also the growing issue of minorities, such as blacks in america, making significantly less money than whites. This issue affects people all around the world who happen

The negative mind-set of employers on pregnant employees plays an important role in causing discrimination. Women’s performance ratings were seen to decline after being pregnant, from “superb” to “terrible” as shared by one victim of pregnancy discrimination. This is because they are perceived as “overly emotional, often irrational, physically limited, and less than committed to their jobs” as compared to their non-pregnant woman counterparts and are hence “less valuable and dependable.” There is also the problem of additional workload for remaining staff or the potential need to hire temporary staff to tide over the maternity leave period. To compound the issue, employers suffer uncertainty as to when the employee will return to work, or worse, the employee leaves for good after their maternity leave period. In fact, a study done shows that only 60% of women go back to work within two years of their maternity leave. It is hence unavoidable that employers, being cost sensitive, worry that all the extra cost incurred will ultimately become a meaningless loss if their pregnant employees do not return to work.

In addition, it has been noted that the access and time-span of maternity leave offered by a job greatly affects the amount of time it takes to return to work and future family-work relationships (Guendelman, Goodman, Kharrazi, & Lahiff, 2014). Those who were offered more than 12 weeks of maternity leave were more likely to return than those offered less (Guendelman, Goodman, Kharrazi, & Lahiff, 2014). Although this policy is highly complex, I chose to focus on impacts on gender roles, maternal health, children’s development, finances, and employer’s attitudes because these were the aspects that seemed to be abundantly clear throughout the research.

It has been argued that maternity leave is not only harmful to business but also to women themselves, and that it can be a burden on businesses so they may think twice about employing women. (7) Where leave is given, whether paid or unpaid, businesses have to fill the position vacated by the parents and this in itself creates additional work and cost for employers who have to pay for job advertisements, background checks and time for interviews. They are also faced with the cost of training the temporary

Since 1995, the amount of companies who use FMLA has dropped drastically by almost 25.5% every five years (Waldfogel, 2001). According to Anthony (2008), only 46% of employers are covered by FMLA, which leaves more than 33.6 million individuals unprotected from losing their jobs when they are on maternity leave. Even if by law the company can’t deny an individual FMLA if the employee meets both government requirements (work at least a year and a minimum of 1,250 hours with the company), the business can purposely delay when the individual receives benefits and they may even ask the individual to use their paid leave before final approval (source). The company can also delay the individual’s application by asking for a second opinion from a doctor or request a medical certification and the company is able to deny the application if the second option does not agree that the leave is necessary (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015). As a result, this increases the amount of discrimination in the workforce towards lower class employees. According to Gerstel & McGonagle (1999), women who have higher salaries and can afford to take the time off are most promising to qualify for FMLA, and therefore, are more likely to spend time with their newborn. Their study showed that middle class white mothers are most likely to benefit from FMLA

Budge, a sociology professor has found that on average for every birth a woman suffers a 4% salary decrease while men receive a 6% pay raise, increasing the pay gap between genders (see Figure 2). It is believed that this change in pay is due the fact that women are more likely to make their family their first priority. Many women, after having a child, attempt to find a job with more flexible hours, which may force them to change to a lower paying job. Mothers may also be exhausted and distracted at their job, compromising their ability to work. There is a stigma against mothers by employers. They assume that a mother’s focus will be on her family instead of her job, which if true, would result in lower quality work and deserving of a lower salary. At the same time, men are more likely to work more after their child is born to fill the financial burden that results from children. Men are viewed positively by employers, unlike women, when they become parents. These stigmas would decrease if paid leave was offered because mothers would be able to focus on their children directly after birth. After their leave is over, women are then better able to balance work and family without financial

Working mothers are a regular target for statistical discrimination and motherhood, linked with a per-child wage penalty of approximately 5%, (Correll, Benard, & Paik, 2007), is widely understood to be “one of the worst career moves a woman can make” (Miller, 2014). Mothers are frequently perceived as less competent employees, are thought to be less committed to their jobs, and are more likely to receive wage, hiring, and promotional penalties for having children (Correll, Benard, & Paik, 2007). Contemporary norms only worsen the current situation: as women are socialised to prioritise caregiving and childrearing over their careers, employers become more and more hesitant to hire them, since they predict that they will be less likely to honour workplace commitments and more prone to leaving their jobs in the future (Schneebaum, 2013). The opposite is true for men: most fathers are perceived as stable, reliable, and dedicated employees – largely because employers expect them to be less “flaky” (Miller, 2014)

It is a common conception that women in the work place to begin with have a disadvantage but even more so if the woman is in fact a mother or the primary caregiver in the family. Written in Motherhood as a Status Characteristic says that “The pay gap between mothers and non-mothers under age thirty-five is now larger than the wage gap between young men and women” Nearly everyday there is one that asks why there is a wage gap between men and women but you rarely hear someone ask about the wage gap between mothers in the workforce and non-mothers in the work force. Ridgeway and Correll analyze some of the reasons as to why there could be a gap in how and why women of motherhood and women on non-motherhood get treated differently in society.

When female employees become pregnant, one of their biggest concerns is likely how they are going to support themselves without pay for their time out. In fact, about 61% of nonworking women ages 25-34 said they weren’t working because of family responsibilities, which likely relates to the unpaid leave that is currently implemented in the U.S. (Gilpin). Although critics say it comes with potential economic concerns, employed women who take maternity leave should be paid due to the long-term consequences of its current policies.

While the world has unanimously advanced and is more accepting of change, the workplace continues to be a place of discrimination, prejudice and inequality. Discrimination is broadly defined to ‘distinguish unfavourably’, isolate; and is context based (Pagura, 2012). Abrahams (1991) described the workplace as an ‘inhospitable place’ where gender disparity and wage gaps persist (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). Among other states and countries, the Australian government actively implements and passes laws to protect and maintain equal employment rights. While the objective of these laws is ‘to eliminate discrimination,’ the regulatory mechanisms in the legislation are largely ineffective at achieving this ultimate goal (Smith, 2008). However,

Even though these women are granted leave, some still find themselves in desperate financial situations. Some women use their paid vacation time during their maternity leave as a source of income but that will not last long. In some situations, women beg for money to not only support themselves, but their new child as well. According to 2013 data from the United State Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 15 percent of employees in the United States were eligible for paid maternity leave (Van Giezen). To seek funds, women often claim short-term disability as a source of income during and after their pregnancy. However, in some states pregnancy is not considered a disability, which leaves some women jobless and no stable income to help support their child. This misfortune leaves countless of women to reenter the workforce before they are ready.

Sex-based wage discrimination is against the law, as is stated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The same Act prohibits pregnancy discrimination and states that employers cannot refuse to employ a woman because of pregnancy or terminate her, force her to go on leave at an arbitrary point during pregnancy or penalize her because of pregnancy in reinstatement rights credit for previous service, and accumulated seniority. Family responsibilities typically still fall more heavily on women, and neither society nor employers have found good ways to mesh those with job demands. Employers see parental leaves as a lack of commitment to the job and therefore more likely not to give promotions to the female workers (Kleiner & Kuta, 2001:45-47). Women can get equal treatment, but mostly when they behave like traditional men and leave the primary family responsibilities at home. Many women choose to take time off or to work part-time to be with their children rather than stay on the job and mainly because of lack of day care and flexible job options (Kleiner & Kuta, 2001:45-47). Some women drop out of work force for as long as two or three years,

A second key issue is the hiring process. Many companies prefer to hire men over women for a positionregardless of their education or experience. Some reasons this may be is because most females have to balance work and family duties which may be a huge barrier in helping advancement in an organization, so an employer may prefer to hire a man who will not come with the baggage of children or the issue of balancing work and family duties. During an interview some women are not hired because they cannot be taken seriously because some may wear too much make-up or their pants suit or skirt may be too tight. Women that are pregnant are also sometimes not considered for a position because the manager may worry about the women wanting time off work on maternity leave. This may not be a direct financial concern about paying women while on maternity leave. It's more about the cost of replacing and training someone to cover their role while they are off.

What they do not understand is that the wage gap effectively says that a woman is not valued as highly as a man is in the workplace because she is not equally compensated for the same work (Racine, 10). Holding a woman's choice to have children against her is not right, any woman should be entitled to the choice of bearing children without the future stress of choosing between her career and her child. Given the current unpaid maternity leave process, it already does a lot to widen the wage gap. Eighty-eight percent of women have no paid leave at all when they give birth (June 1). Also, some may say that the United States can not afford to offer paid maternity leave to working mothers. Economies such as Germany, Canada, Finland and Great Britain have all demonstrated that it is possible to offer those programs for families (Lavoie

In 2017, the U.S. News and World Report analyzed and classified sixty countries by their wealth and nine categories of national attributes (adventure, citizenship, cultural influence, entrepreneurship, heritage, open for business, moves, powers, and quality of life). From this ranking, the United States classifies as number four in the best country to live in because of its high cultural influence, entrepreneurship, and quality of life (U.S. News and World Report, 2017). Yet, it is the only industrialized country that does not pay for maternity leave (Human Rights Watch, 2011, book). For example, while Germany grants soon to be mothers a 14 week (paid) period to bond with their child, in the U.S., women only have three unpaid months of maternal leave and many have to rely on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for job security while they are away (The Huffington Post Canada, 2012). Consequently, mothers are not able to stay at home with their newborns and provide their full attention during these imperative days without having economic repercussions. This is problematic because 57% of employees are women and 70% of these women are mothers (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015). The bulk of the evidence suggests that paid maternity leave can bring benefits to both the child and the mother. I will present evidence on why mothers should have paid maternity leave.