CRR Exam 2

Disparate Treatment

One individual treated less favorably because of color, race, religion, sex, national origin.

Plaintiff must prove ____ to rule disparate treatment

Discriminatory motive

Prima facie case requires proving:

•plaintiff is within a protected class
•plaintiff applied for a job or promotion
•plaintiff possessed minimum qualifications
•plaintiff was denied the job or promotion.
•employer continued to look for someone to fill the position

If plaintiff makes prima facie case...

burden shifts to employer to show a nondiscriminatory business reasons for rejecting the plaintiff.

Disparate impact

A facially neutral policy or practice that has a discriminatory impact
on a protected class.

Plaintiff must show _____ to rule disparate impact

statistically that the rule disproportionately restricts employment opportunities for a protected class.

If plaintiff makes a disparate impact case...

Burden shifts to employer to show there is a business necessity for the practice

How can plaintiff still win a disparate impact case?

Showing the business necessity is a pretext.
ex. Power company could not show business necessity for policy requiring high school diplomas and IQ tests for certain jobs. (Griggs v. Duke Power Co.)

Examples of practices that may be subject to a disparate impact challenge include:

Written tests
Height and weight requirements,
Educational requirements

Equal Pay Act of 1963

Prevents wage discrimination based on gender to remedy situations where women were paid less than men for doing the same job.

Equal work

work requiring equal:
•skill
•effort
•responsibility
•working conditions

Defenses to EPA

•Bona fide seniority system
•Bona fide merit system.
•Pay based on quantity of output.
•Factors other than sex.

Statutory defenses to title VII

Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ)
(Allows employer to discriminate when the favored characteristic is necessary for performance of the job.) does not apply to discrimination based on race or color

•Merit

•Seniority Systems

To establish a case for BFOQ, the employer must...

be able to demonstrate that the discriminatory criteria is sufficiently related to the job in question and that it's a necessity for the general operation of the business
•1) Where it is necessary for the purpose of authenticity or genuineness
(e.g., model, actor, actress)
•or maintaining conventional standards of sexual privacy
(e.g., locker room attendant, intimate apparel fitter)

Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)

Applicability
•Employers with 15 or more employees, Unions, Employment agencies

•Prohibits discrimination in employment based on 5 protected classes:

race, religion, sex, national origin, color.

employment at will doctrine

Employment for an indefinite term which is terminable at will by either party.
•Employee without a contract for a term of years can be terminated at any time for any reason.
•Rationale:
•Employer should have right to control his property.
•Both parties should have equal right to terminate their relationship.

Employment at will doctrine EXCEPTIONS

Implied contract exception
•Advertising the position.
•Employment manual.
Public policy exception
•Whistleblowing
•Jury duty or military service.
•Filing workers' compensation claim.
•Refusal to take lie detector test.
Implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing
•Implicit understanding the parties will deal fairly with each other.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

If an employee with a disability can perform the job with reasonable accommodation, without undue hardship on the employer, the accommodation must be made.
•Examples: wheelchair ramps, raised desks, flexible working hours, improved training materials.

applications of the ADA

•Applies to all employers with 15 or more employees.
•Interview guidelines
•Covered individuals:
•Persons with certain diseases.
•Mental disabilities.
•Employees recovering Alcoholism and drug addiction.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Statute pertaining to:

Child Labor

Maximum Hours

Minimum Wages

FLSA child labor guidelines

Below 14
Deliver Newspapers, Entertainment, Agriculture work for Parents
14 and 15
May work in nonhazardous occupations
Subject to numerous limitations
Many states require permit
16-18
May work in nonhazardous occupation
No permit or limitations

What is a disability (ADA definition)

ADA defines disability as:
•Physical or mental impairment that "substantially limits one or more of major life activities
or
•A record of such impairment
•Being regarded as having such an impairment.
•Determination is decided on a case-by-case basis.

FLSA hours guidelines

Overtime
Employee who works over 40 hours per week must be paid minimum of one and a half regular pay for hours over 40.
Exemptions
Executives
Administrative
Professional
Salespersons

FLSA wages guidelines

Minimum Wage
The federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 an hour.
Exceptions apply such as
•An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage
When an employee is subject to both the federal and state wage laws, the employee is entitled to the provisions of each law which provide the greater benefits.

Workers' Compensation Laws

Provides compensation for workers injured on the job.

Covers most workers.
Excludes:
Domestic workers
Agricultural workers
Temporary employees
Employees of Common Carriers

Income security

Social Security
Provides for:
Retirement Benefits

Survivors Benefits

Disability Insurance

The Social Security Administration uses the tax money to pay benefits to:

• People who have already retired.
• People who are disabled.
• Survivors of workers who have died.
• Dependents of beneficiaries.

Social security system

Social Security taxes are based on a workers earnings, up to a certain amount.

The wage base for computing Social Security tax will increase to ______ for 2022

$147,000 (up from $142,800 for 2021).
Wages and self-employment income above this threshold aren't subject to Social Security tax.

Traditionally, the full SS benefit age was ____ and early retirement benefits were first available at age ___ with a permanent reduction to __ percent of the full benefit amount.

65, 62, 80

If one chooses to delay receiving benefits beyond full retirement age,

benefits increase depending on one's year of birth.

The increase is automatically applied each month from the time one reaches full retirement age, until one starts taking benefits or reaches age 70,

Currently, the full SS benefit age is ____

66 years and 2 months for people born in 1955, and it will gradually rise to 67 for those born in 1960 or later.

Employers with fifty or more employees must allow up to _____ weeks of family or medical leave during any twelve month period

12

When employee takes a family/medical leave, employer must....

➢Continue Health-care coverage during leave
➢Guarantee employment in same or comparable position when employee returns

Examples of when family/medical leave is taken

Generally leave taken for:
Care for a newborn bably

Care for newly adopted child

Serious health condition of employee or family

Morals

Rules relating to dealing with, or making a distinction between right and wrong in conduct
Universal rules or guidelines that determine our actions and character

Ethics

Moral principles and values applied to social behavior.
A systematic statement of right and wrong together with philosophical system that both justifies and necessitates rules of conduct

Utilitarianism

John Stewart Mill/Jeremy Benthem

"Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness"

Do that action which will bring about the Greatest good for
the greatest number of people

Two bodies of contract law

Uniform commercial code
•Sale of goods (tangible personal property)
Common Law
Contracts not covered by the UCC
( Services, real estate, employment, insurance, etc.)

•Combination of Goods and Service
•Majority Rule: Predominant factor test

CISG automatically applies to...

a contract for the sale of goods between commercial parties from nations that agreed to CISG unless the parties expressly opt out of the CISG in their contract

T/F: all contracts must be in writing

FALSE

T/F: parties to a contract must do what is required of them by the contract

FALSE

Consideration

Legal detriment/Legal benefit bargained for and given in exchange for a promise of action.

Two elements of consideration

•1.There must be a bargained for exchange.

•2.What is bargained for must have legal value.

Legal Sufficiency of Consideration

Something of legal value must be given in exchange for a promise.

•It may be a return promise or performance.

•If it is performance, that performance may be
•(1) an act (other than a promise)
or
•(2) a forbearance (refraining from action)

Legal detriment

Legal detriment is not always economic detriment.

A person can incur legal detriment by
(1) doing or promising to do something that he or she had no prior legal duty to do
or
(2) refraining from or promising to refrain from doing something that he or she had a prior legal right to do. (that is, by forbearance).

Mental incompetence

Contracts made by persons who are not able to comprehend the subject matter, nature and consequences of their actions, due to mental illness or intoxications are voidable.

•If a person has been adjudged incompetent by a court any contract the enter into is void

Breach of contract

the failure to perform what a party is under a duty to perform.
• When this happens, the nonbreaching party can choose one or more remedies.

• Unless damages would be inadequate a court will award money damages

A breach of contract entitles the nonbreaching party to sue for ____

money (damages).

• In the context of contract law, damages compensate the nonbreaching party for the loss of the bargain.

• Damages place the innocent party in the same position they would have occupied had the contract been fully performed

4 categories of damages

1.Compensatory (to cover direct losses and costs).

• 2.Consequential (to cover indirect and foreseeable losses).

•3.Punitive (to punish and deter wrongdoing).

•4.Nominal (to recognize wrongdoing when no monetary loss is shown).

Compensatory damages

These damages compensate the injured party for damages arising directly from the loss of the bargain caused by the breach of contract.

The difference between the promised performance and the actual performance.

They replace what was lost because of the breach of contract.

Consequential damages

Damages caused by special circumstances beyond the contract itself. They flow from the consequences, or results, of a breach.

The breaching party must know (or have reason to know) that special circumstances will cause the additional loss.
(Hadley v. Baxendale)

Rescission

Terminates a contract

Restitution

returns the contracting parties to the positions they occupied prior to the contract.

specific performance

Requires the performance of the act promised in the contract

Reformation

Allows the contract to be rewritten to reflect the parties' true intentions

Many/most states have state minimum wage laws such as

The District of Columbia has the highest minimum wage at $14.00/hour, Arizona, California, Colorado $12.0/hour

In 2020, the taxable income amount was ____

that amount is $137,700. (Worker pays tax only up to this amount)

The current tax rate for social security is ____

6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% total.
If you're self-employed, you pay the combined employee and employer amount, of 12.4%

No matter what your full retirement age is, (67) you may start receiving benefits as early as ___

age 62

Early retirement benefits will continue to be available at age 62, but they will be reduced more. When the full-benefit age reaches __, benefits taken at age __ will be reduced to ____ percent of the full benefit and benefits first taken at age ___ will be reduced to _____ percent of the full benefit.

67, 62, 70, 65, 86.7

You can also retire at any time between age 62 and full retirement age. However, if you start at one of these early ages, your benefits are ____

reduced a fraction of a percent for each month before your full retirement age.  

As a general rule, early retirement will give you about the same total Social Security benefits over your lifetime, but in smaller amounts to take into account the longer period you will receive them.

Business ethics is the study of proper business policies and practices regarding potentially controversial issues, such as

corporate governance
insider trading
bribery
discrimination
corporate social responsibility
fiduciary responsibilities

Structures that block ethical conduct:

Ambiguity about priorities
Separation of Policy Decisions from Implementation
Strict line of command
Strong role models
Division of work (Isolation of employees)
Task group loyalty
Protection from outside intervention
Believing Your Own Story Too Much
Giving Yourself Too Much Credit
Circling the Wagons and Demonizing Critic
Praising A and Rewarding B
Undervaluing the Public Good

hostile work environment

Form of sex based discrimination and counts as sexual harassment
•A hostile work environment occurs when the workplace is “permeated” with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, insult created by a boss or coworker whose actions, communications and/or behavior are so severe as to alter the terms and conditions of the victim’s employment.
•The conduct in the workplace must be offensive to a reasonable person as well as to the victim, and it must be severe and pervasive.
Offensive jokes
Insults, slurs and name-calling
Touching, physical assaults, and threats
Use of sexual language
Intimidation, ridicule, and mockery
Sexually suggestive objects or pictures
Interference with work performance