discrimination

(noun)

(sometimes discrimination against) distinct treatment of an individual or group to their disadvantage; treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality; prejudice; bigotry.

Related Terms

Examples of discrimination in the following topics:

  • Age Discrimination and Health Act

    • Under this act both employees and applicants who are 40 years old or over are protected from employment discrimination based on their age.
    • The following announcement of the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation apprenticeship program exemplifies the lack of age discrimination in appreticeship programs.
    • The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older from employment discrimination based on age.
    • It is also unlawful to retaliate against an individual for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on age or for filing an age discrimination charge, testifying, or participating in any way in an investigation, proceeding, or litigation under the ADEA.
    • Explain how the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects individuals

  • Civil Rights Act

    • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation.
    • White-only restaurants are an example of the type of discrimination that was outlawed as a result of the Civil Rights Act.
    • Prevented discrimination by government agencies that receive federal funds.
    • Prohibited discrimination by covered employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
    • Established the Community Relations Service, tasked with assisting in community disputes involving claims of discrimination.

  • Affirmative Action

    • Affirmative action prevents discrimination against employees on the basis of race, religion, gender, or nationality.
    • These measures are intended to prevent discrimination against employees or applicants for employment, on the basis of race, religion, gender, or nationality.
    • Examples of affirmative action offered by the United States Department of Labor include outreach campaigns, targeted recruitment, employee and management development, and employee support programs.The impetus towards affirmative action is to redress the disadvantages associated with overt historical discrimination.
    • Some policies adopted as affirmative action, such as racial quotas or gender quotas for collegiate admission, have been criticized as a form of reverse discrimination, and such implementation of affirmative action has been ruled unconstitutional by the majority opinion in the case of Gratz v.

  • Termination

    • Some of the illegitimate reasons for terminating employees include, among many others, discrimination and violations of public policy.
    • There are several laws that have been enacted in the United States in order to protect employees from unfair termination in the workplace based on discrimination, the most prevalent of which are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination and Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).
    • According to West's Business Law, it is quite possible that discrimination based on age is the most widespread form of discrimination, being that anyone, regardless of gender, national origin, etc. may find themselves a victim at some point in their life (Clarkson, 2004).
    • Furthermore, the ADA was specifically enacted in order to "(1) provide a clear and comprehensive mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities, (2) provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities, (3) to ensure that the Federal Government plays a central role in enforcing the standards established in this Act on behalf of individuals with disabilities, and (4) to invoke the sweep of congressional authority, including the power to enforce the fourteenth amendment and to regulate commerce, in order to address the major areas of discrimination faced day-to-day by people with disabilities" (US Department of Labor).
    • As of 1994, the ADA is applicable to companies that employ 15 or more employees and prohibits such companies from discriminating based on a disability in all employment practices such as recruitment, pay, hiring, firing, promotion, benefits, etc.

  • Childcare

    • Civil rights laws are designed to prevent discrimination of pregnant women in the workplace, including providing 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
    • According to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, added to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a female who is unable to perform her job owing to pregnancy must be treated the same as other temporarily disabled employees.
    • In addition to this law against discrimination of pregnant women, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is enforced by the U.S.

  • Americans with Disabilities Act

    • The ADA makes it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities in employment, public transportation, and communications.
    • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities.
    • Employment discrimination is prohibited against "qualified individuals with disabilities. " This includes applicants for employment and current employees.
    • Persons discriminated against because they have a known association or relationship with an individual with a disability also are protected.

  • Differential

    • Price differentiation, or price discrimination, exists when sales of identical goods or services are transacted at different prices from the same provider.
    • Some economists have argued that this is a form of price discrimination exercised by providing a means for consumers to reveal their willingness to pay.

  • Equal Pay Act

    • In passing the bill, Congress denounces sex discrimination for the following reasons:
    • "No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs, the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii)a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex. "

  • Behavior Modification

    • Behavior modification techniques include: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, shaping, discussion, communication, participation, discrimination and proximity with verbal and non-verbal cues, and warning and punishment.
    • Shaping, discussion, communication, participation and discrimination strategies are used to encourage employees to show their behavior perfectly.

  • Demand-Based Pricing

    • Yield management can result in price discrimination.
    • These include: price skimming, price discrimination and yield management, price points, psychological pricing, bundle pricing, penetration pricing, price lining, value-based pricing, geo and premium pricing.
    • It is a temporal version of price discrimination/yield management.
    • Price discrimination or price differentiation exists when sales of identical goods or services are transacted at different prices from the same provider.
    • This process can result in price discrimination, where a firm charges customers consuming otherwise identical goods or services a different price for doing so.