How does anyone ever prove discrimination?
Good question. Few employers admit that they discriminate against applicants or employees. Experience shows, however, that employers still leave plenty of fingerprints. This includes: Direct, or “smoking gun” evidence, such as: • disparaging remarks; • slurs; • admissions of bias (“women don’t belong around heavy construction equipment”); • jokes Indirect evidence, such as: • statistics (an all white, male executive team or a higher than expected proportion of older workers laid off) • Other cases of discrimination • Pretext (bogus reasons given for employment decisions to cover up the unlawful reason) • Better treatment of people outside of the protected class who have equal or lesser qualifications. If you think you are a victim of discrimination, look at who the decision-maker is (a known bigot or a fair-minded boss) and compare your qualifications to the successful candidate (be honest about your flaws). If the decision looks suspicious, ask the decision-maker for an explanation. I
