Labor of Love: Law Professors' Study Provides New Weapons in Fighting Job Discrimination. (Top 100: 2001-2002)

Hammer, Ben, Black Issues in Higher Education

Ruth and Alfred "Al" Blumrosen have worked for almost 50 years to improve labor conditions in this country and around the world. And despite recently buying a beach house in Naples, Fla., the couple, law professors at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J., since the 1950s, are not quite going into full retirement. In fact, they have published the first comprehensive study of employment discrimination throughout the United States, yielding results the Blumrosens believe point to an easy way for the government to reduce job discrimination.

Their most recent study found that 75 percent of all "intentional discrimination" in employment occurs in just 20 percent of the industries surveyed. Legally, intentional discrimination occurs when an employer takes into account race or sex in making an adverse employment decision, even as one of many factors. Showing that a company or owner employs minorities or women far below the average rate that other employers do is evidence that the employer is purposefully discriminating, shifting the burden to the employer to prove this is not the case.

The research found that two million minorities and women in 1999 were affected by "intentional discrimination" in the workplace--marking the first time research has quantified this type of discrimination. It also found that approximately eight million minorities held upper-level jobs in 1999.

The study's most notable findings are both …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Labor of Love: Law Professors' Study Provides New Weapons in Fighting Job Discrimination. (Top 100: 2001-2002). Contributors: Hammer, Ben - Author. Magazine title: Black Issues in Higher Education. Volume: 20. Issue: 8 Publication date: June 5, 2003. Page number: 24+. © 1999 Cox, Matthews & Associates. COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.