Looks, Beauty, Appearance Discrimination in Employment...

Looks, Beauty, Appearance Discrimination in Employment Employment discrimination legislation has evolved to include race, disabilities, sexual harassment of either gender, and age. In lieu of this evolution and an increasing trend toward equality for all individuals in the workplace, the time has come for the protective reach of employment discrimination law to cover ugliness. While the proposal may cause titters at first, evidence exists that discrimination based on looks (or physical appearance) occurs in the workplace. An investigation was conducted by ABC’s 20/20 news program in 1994 that sent two men and two women into the workplace to secure the same jobs (Sessions 1). The individuals were coached to act in a similar†¦show more content†¦It protects the employee from unfair bias and it protects the employer by diminishing the risk of lawsuit based on discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been instrumental in the development of employment discrimination law. According to the EEO C guidelines, employment discrimination law should be designed to achieve the following goals in descending order of importance:  · Eliminating employment bias and arbitrariness from the workplace.  · Limiting employment decisions to unaccommodable criteria that are essential to job qualification.  · Facilitating occupational goal attainment.  · Enhancing employment decision-making.  · Designing ergonomically and psychosocially optimal work environments.  · Enhancing occupational mobility.  · Minimizing social costs of litigation.  · Facilitating resolution of employment-related disputes.  · Eliminating employee retaliation. (Amack 1) There is a fine line on employment discrimination law when it comes to appearance. Typically, appearance discrimination lawsuits have been decided in favor of employers as long as the criteria for appearance is applied equally to males and females. For example, models cannot sue a potential employer for not hiring them because they were considered less attractive than another model because the same criteria is applied to male models. Age discrimination has recently come under the protective reach of employmentShow MoreRelatedBeauty Is In The Eyes Of The Beholder: The Fight Against Appearance Based Workplace Discrimination1701 Words   |  7 Pages Discrimination happens all around us, and in many different forms. When it comes to being employed, there are laws in place to protect us against certain methods of discrimination. According to a website used by many lawyers, businesses, and individuals, discrimination is â€Å"Unfair treatment or denial of normal privileges to persons because of their race, age, sex, nationality or religion† (â€Å"Discrimination†). 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