The End of Discrimination Laws?
During our last webinar, we asked the following question . . .
Women now make up the majority of the non-farm workforce and the vast majority of college attendees. Recent studies show that wage disparities appear to be narrowing. In the not-so-distant future, the U.S. will be more than 50% non-white. The Supreme Court and even the Oval Office reflect more diversity than ever before. So, when will Title VII be repealed?
Here’s how our audience of 2,000+ responded . . .
a. By the end of the week (0%)
b. By the end of the decade (15%)
c. By 2030 (10%)
d. By 2050 (4%)
e. Never (71%)
So, the vast majority of you feel that Title VII will never be repealed. I tend to agree.
Setting aside some of the obvious political reasons (not a whole lot of politicians are likely to want to raise their hand and say “I’m against discrimination laws”), there’s still quite a bit of work to do before true equity will rein in the workplace.
Among other things, women still only earn 77¢ for every $1 earned by men — a whopping $431,000 less over the length of an average career. Despite the fact that women now constitute a majority of the workforce, only 3% of CEOs and 13% of executive officers are women. There are other similarly sobering statistics for other protected classes.
The Bottom Line: Don’t expect Title VII to go away any time soon.
As always, thanks for your participation!
(Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Catalyst, TIME Magazine, Center for American Progress)