US Equal Employment Laws and Regulations

This page contains pointers to information about US federal equal employment laws and regulations which may be relevant to academics and researchers in computer science (or similar fields).

I am not an expert on this topic. I have simply collected pointers from federal government pages. If you have additional information or corrections, please tell me (fleck@cs.hmc.edu).

Note that CFR stands for "Code of Federal Regulations."

General pointers

Useful places to begin a search through the federal government web pages:

• the White House's Guide to the U.S. Government
• GovBot Database of Government Web Sites (a keyword search engine)

The House of Representatives maintains an Internet Law Library , which is a comprehensive guide containing a wide selection of US federal laws and documents, as well as various similar documents for states, other countries, and international law.

Enforcement Agencies

Equal employment laws are enforced by a variety of federal agencies. Particularly relevant ones include:

• Office of Civil Rights
• Department of Labor
  • Employment Standards Administration
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM)

Discrimination by race, color, religion, sex, national origin

A number of federal laws and regulations prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, both by the federal government itself and by organizations receiving various types of federal financial assistance or government contracts. These include:

• Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended in 1972 and 1991 (42 U.S.C. 2000d to 2000d-4 and 2000e-16) with guidance as codified in 29 CFR Parts 1604, 1605, 1606, 1607, and 1614.
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as amended (20 U.S.C. 1681 to 1688)
• Executive Order 11246 as amended and extended by EO 11375, 11478 and others (summarized by the Employment Standards Administration's fact sheet)
• The Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. 206(d)
• Sections 164 and 167 of the Job Training Partnership Act of 1982
• CFR 41 "Public Contracts and Property Management", Chapter 60 "Office of Federal Contract Programs (OFCP), Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), U.S. Department of Labor" (be aware that some parts of this, e.g. 60-2, refer to all government contractors and some parts, e.g. 60-4, refer only to construction contractors)

Summaries of these laws by enforcement agencies include

• Nondiscrimination and Affirmative Action laws and regulations enforced by the Employment Standards Administration's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)

Age Discrimination

At least two laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of age. For employment, the relevant law is the The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (Public Law (PL) 90-202) which applies only to people at least 40 years of age. For participants in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance, the relevant law is the Age Discrimination Act (ADA) of 1975, which applies to people of all ages.

Medical Leave, Disabilities

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-3)

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-336) (see also related information from the Department of Justice)

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 794)

Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, amended

Minimum wage, overtime/working hours

We appear not to be covered by the minimum wage and overtime laws. See the Department of Labor fact sheet.

This page is maintained by Margaret Fleck.