The EEOC recently published a one-page fact sheet for small businesses, which you can access here. While the fact sheet is geared towards small businesses, other employers should check it out too, as it discusses federal labor laws, which cover every employer with 15 or more employees. Here at The Workplace Report, we have written about virtually all of the topics discussed in this fact sheet, which you can see by clicking on the links below. These topics include:
- Making sure that employment decisions are not based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, or genetic information. We have discussed laws prohibiting discrimination based on disability, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity. We have also discussed reverse discrimination.
- Creating workplace policies that are related to the job and that do not discriminate. We have discussed five policy updates that employers need to make right now, tips on creating employee handbooks, and electronic communications policies.
- Ensuring that employees are not harassed because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, or genetic information. Check out our articles discussing 5 important facts about sexual harassment, 5 ways employers can prevent sexual harassment, what you should do if a customer harasses your employee, tips about dealing with workplace dating, and whether same-sex sexual harassment is illegal.
- Providing equal pay to male and female employees who perform the same work, unless you can justify a pay difference under the law. We have discussed when a pay difference might be justified, the dangers of giving all of your female employees a raise at once, and new EEOC reporting requirements on male and female pay.
- Responding promptly and adequately to discrimination complaints, and ensuring that employees are not punished for complaining. We have discussed investigating complaints or threats made by employees, responding to employee complaints, retaliation, and the Illinois Whistleblower Act.
- Providing reasonable accommodations (changes to the way things are normally done at work) to employees and job applicants who need them for medical reasons, as is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We have provided an overview of the ADA, advice on how to apply the ADA correctly, discussed whether employers must give a reasonable accommodation to obese and alcoholic employees, and whether the ADA can be used to avoid overtime.
- Keeping employment records like job applications and personnel records. We have discussed the importance of keeping good documentation, keeping accurate wage records, and allowing an employee to review his personnel file.
Contact us for more information on any of the topics listed above.
