discrimination

Ellen Pao’s sex discrimination case against venture capital stalwart Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers continues among allegations of discrimination based upon her being too aggressive or not aggressive enough, depending upon whose review of Pao is believed. Most followers of the case agree that neither Silicon Valley nor the venture capital industry look good in this case, which is clearly showing that men dominate the industry, many men are paid far higher salaries than women, and the accepted norm is to engage in arrogant, egocentric behavior.

Sexual discrimination and employment cases are becoming more prominent. In 2012, there were almost 100,000 EEOC complaints filed with about 2/3 of those alleging racial or sexual discrimination. http://eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/charges.cfm. With the onslaught of baby boomers in the workplace, it is likely that age discrimination claims will rise in the next few years.

Alabama, like most states, is an employment at will state. This means that your employer can terminate you for most any reason, unless you are in a protected class and the employer terminates you because of your classification in that class. The most common classes are race, gender, and age but pregnancy, religion, disability status, and national origin can also be considered protected.

According to a Wall Street Journal report this week, the Justice Department is investigating numerous big banks over minorities paying higher interest rates for auto loans. The practice, known as “redlining,” or charging people different interest rates based on race, is not only immoral, it is illegal.

Auto loans are an $800 billion industry. Most auto loans that end up in the hands of big banks start at the dealership. Dealerships make more money by selling the higher interest loans to banks, and banks make more money from the customer by charging more interest. The dealerships may be the ones setting up the lending, but the banks also benefit from the discrimination, so the law expects banks to use reasonable measures to make sure the dealers sending them loans are not discriminating.

Consider the following modest example. A person borrowing $15,000 to buy a car at 6% for 5 years will pay $290/month. If someone with the same credit and income but a different race is charged 9% interest for 5 years, it will be $311/month. That $21/month extra comes out to $1,260 more paid for the same car by the person of color with the higher interest rate. You can imagine how much more someone has to pay when they are charged 10%, 15% or even 18% interest on a car.

Articles Posted in discrimination

Sex Discrimination

Minorities Illegally Charged More for Auto Loans