Under laws
enforced by the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) employers and
recruiters are required to post job advertisement which show no preference for race,
color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older),
disability or genetic information. Below are some examples of wording in job
ads which could get employers and recruiters in trouble with the EEOC:
1.
“Looking
for recent law school grads…” By
asking for recent law school graduates recruiters/employers could be
discouraging those who are over 40 from applying for the job. While there are
some exceptions to this rule, such as apprenticeships which have age limits,
asking for recent grads when it’s not necessary to do the job could cause
problems.
2.
“In
search of a single female attorney who can work long hours…” Once again asking for a specific gender
is a violation of the EEOC job advertisement guidelines. Even if the gender is
a protected class, it still discriminates against men.
3.
“Need
an attorney who is a native speaker of English…” While English proficiency is important for any type of legal
work, asking for a native speaker could be viewed as discriminatory against
people whose national origin is someplace outside of the U.S.
Recruiters and
employers also need to be aware that the EEOC is looking at recruitment methods
which may not be intentionally discriminatory but which may exclude certain
groups because the method is not inclusive. For example, recruiting exclusively by word of mouth through
an employer’s limited social network may exclude certai, genders, races or
classes from having the opportunity to hear about the job.