Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972 Paper Example

Introduction

The policy paper on the Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972 was developed to address specific issues and problems affecting the people while underemployment. Some of the most prevalent issues were sex, religion, national origin, sex, color, and race. The act was introduced directly to address these issues and prohibit job discrimination in the United States (Hill, 1977). This paper examines the problem that led to the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972, the national ideology, historical importance of employment questions and how the problem was handled. The paper further examines the background information for the establishment of the act, significant amendments, changes made and the legislative history of the act.

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The Problem

In the US, the most prevalent problem in employment was the rising cases of employment discrimination in the form of sex, age, color, origin, and religion (Zimmer & Sullivan, 2017). In 1964, there were over 8852 charges of employment discrimination reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission yet the commission expected on 1000 charges during that year (EEOC, 2019). These events did not augur well to civil rights groups and labor movements. Racial discrimination was evident when blacks were not employed even though they possessed the required skills to hold those job positions. Labor discrimination against black workers was due to racial prejudice (Ashenfelter, 1972).

Moreover, in 1969 there were of 1031 cases of age discrimination which were reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Bergman, 1970). Age discrimination was common where those people over the age of 40 were not considered for employment. Another issue in employment discrimination was wage differences as a result of sex. Women were paid low wages compared to men (Moran, 1970). Therefore, this led to the need to introduce equal employment opportunity for every worker regardless of sex, age, color, religion, race or origin.

Ideology

In the 1960s, the ideology of affirmative action was adopted to address employment discrimination in the country. Affirmative action was introduced by President Kennedy when he signed the Executive Order 10925 which did not allow government employers from discriminating any employee or applicant in the form of race, gender, color or national origin. The executive order was further reviewed by President Lyndon who affirmed equal employment opportunities by the federal government. Affirmative action was further introduced to protect women in employment and reduce employment discrimination in the form of sex. Therefore, affirmative action is the driving force that has helped the federal government and its people to address employment discrimination.

Historical Importance

Generally, questions of employment discrimination have been very significant in the country. These questions of race, age, color, or sex discrimination have led to the adoption of equal employment opportunity for all nationals. In 1964 the civil rights act introduced the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which was tasked to handle disputes relating to employment discrimination. Also, in 1967 the Equal Pay Cut was introduced to allow for equal pay for all workers despite sex, age, or color. Furthermore, in 1972 the Equal Employment Opportunity Act came into existent to exclusively eliminate employment discrimination in the country. These laws have been amended to ensure there are no obstacles which could influence equal employment opportunities adversely.

Statistics

Employment discrimination was persistent against blacks and women. In 1969, black participation in employment was lower than the average employment availability rate of 10. 2%. There were only 1.5% of blacks employed as officials and managers, 2.1% as professionals and 5.6% as technicians. These statistics show that the blacks were significantly affected by employment discrimination and employment gaps influenced them negatively (Riach & Rich, 2002). Only 50 thousand African-Americans were employed in the same year which shows that employment practices did not favor them. On the other, hand women experienced employment discrimination in that, in 1966 only one in every five women with children under six years while a quarter of those with children over 16 years was given paid jobs (Walsh, 2010). Employment discrimination against women brought much dissatisfaction among them as men were mainly considered for employment compared to them.

Handling of the Problem

Employment discrimination was taken seriously among civil society. They were at the center stage of agitating for equal employment opportunities. Civil rights groups included community groups, women associations, trade unions, professional associations, social movements and advocacy groups (Clark, 1970). The problem was further handled through executive orders from the presidents who required equal employment opportunities. Also, the problem was discussed in the Senate, House of Representatives, the Congress and House committees like the House Labor Committee.

Background Information

Before the inception of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which was responsible for acting upon and eliminating employment discrimination. The federal agency was charged with eliminating discrimination based on color, race, origin, sex, disability, and age. Therefore, this agency was responsible for dealing with employment problems and issues in the country more so to ensure there was minimal discrimination in any state of the federal government of the United States. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was also responsible for overseeing compliance and enforcement of equal employment opportunities among federal employees.

Other constitutional reforms which have been coherent with the urge to deal with employment discrimination and promote equal employment opportunities in the country were the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (Krieger, 1995). The Age Discrimination Act of 1967 was rampant in addressing employment issues of employees who were 40 years and above. Most of them were discriminated concerning age since they were regarded as less productive according to their employers. The legislation required that any case involving age discrimination to be reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which had the sole mandate to address the issue. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 aimed at ensuring fair remuneration and compensation practices by employers towards their employees. There were low pay cuts subjected to employees, and the law was intended in addressing these issues (O'Conor, 1999).

In 1965, there was an executive order which provided for the close working relationship between federal agencies as there was the establishment of the memorandum of understanding between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor. The memorandum aimed at eliminating any employment discrimination and was exclusively signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The effect of the executive order was to do away with discrimination and to encourage affirmative action as a condition for doing business with the federal government.

Due to increased employment discrimination in the United States, there was a growing need to empower the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to have more powers to function effectively (Blumrosen, 1972). There were the civil rights groups advocating for the amendment of the Civil Rights Act 1964 to allow the EEOC to have more enforcement powers to deal with employment discrimination. The policy paper was introduced in 1966 when President Johnson endorsed the bill. The bill, however, was passed by the House of Representatives, but the Senate did not act on it. The efforts did not fail as the bill was continually pushed and voting was the primary order of business among the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The changes to the policy paper arose due to the need to increase the powers of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Also, pressure from civil rights groups and labor unions demanded the increased scope of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The proposals by the Labor committee was to give the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cease and desist enforceable powers, to extend coverage of Title VII to federal employees, state employees, employers, and unions with over eight workers, as well as powers to initiate litigation about employment discrimination (Sape & Hart, 1971). The changes arose in early 1971 when the bill was introduced to the Congress by Representative Hawkins and to the House Labor Committee on May 4, 1971 (Walsh 2010).

The final action on the bill was in March 1972 when it was cleared in the Senate and sent to the White House for assent. The bill was cleared by a vote of 303 against 101 in the Congress where the conference report on the policy paper was agreed to give enforcement powers to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The passage of the bill was considered as a seven-year success as civil rights groups pushed the policy paper for over seven years. The groups pushed for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to be given enforcement powers to take any employer who violated the equal employment laws to a federal court. The bill was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Major Amendments to the Policy on the Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972

The main amendment in the Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972 involved the need to confer enforcement powers to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. There was a need to give more powers to the commission to ensure the implementation of the employment discrimination law (Burstein, 1998). The amendment intended to equip and empower the commission to take to court any employer found to discriminate employees on the grounds of race, gender, color, origin or nationality. Therefore, this would ensure compliance of the employment laws by all private and federal employers in giving equal employment opportunities to job seekers (Lynch, 1990). Also, the other major amendment that was introduced in the Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972 involved extension of the jurisdiction of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to smaller businesses and unions that were covered under the Civil rights Act 1964 (Pedriana & Stryker, 2004).

Legislative History

Senator Williams introduced the bill debate on January 19, 1972, after it was approved by the house committee. Senator Williams supported the bill as it allowed federal employees to report cases of employment discrimination in federal courts (Hill, 1977). The general debate on the bill started on January 20 where there were several supporters as well as there were reservations by individual members, for example, transfer of powers from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCC) to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The bill was forwarded to the General Counsel where there was support for cease and desist proposal on the bill about the amendment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972. The bill underwent both the cease and desist vote on the enforcement powers of the EEOC. The primary sponsors of the bill were the chairman of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, Harrison A. Williams Jr. and the ranking minority member Jacob K. Javits Thirty-one members of the Senate also cosponsored it. Earlier, the bill had been advocated for by civil rights groups but was sponsored by Williams and Javits on the Senate floor as they were the ones who introduced the bill and the cease-desist proposal in the Sen...