PROTECTION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN THE USA

Abstract

The basic statutory instruments in the sphere of protection against discrimination in the USA are: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964, Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1972, Pregnancy Discrimination Act 1978, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act 1967, Vocational Rehabilitation Act 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990. In a Collective Employment Agreement the provisions of current antidiscrimination legislation are worked out in details by the parties involved. The majority of Collective Employment Agreements in the USA include widened provisions on the restriction of discrimination. There are still cases of discrimination in the USA despite the developed antidiscrimination legislation and rich court practice. Statistics shows a sufficiently huge gap in pay for work between men and women as well as between the representatives of different races. In 1991 the difference in pay between white men and women living in the same region, working in the same industry, having the same marital status and membership in the trade union was 36%. No doubt, this difference can be explained by discrimination. According to the US Census Bureau, the difference in pay between black and white populations in 1999 was not less than 25%. The average salary of white workers was $ 42 439, Hispanics- $ 28 330 and Afro-Americans - $ 25 351. The difference in pay between men and women had reduced by 2010. Thus, the difference in pay between men and women at the age of 35-44 (not trade union members) was 13.3%. The difference in pay between white workers and Afro-Americans is a little bit higher-20%. Compensation discrimination is a wide-spread phenomenon in the USA. The author gives the definition of "compensation discrimination" on the basis of the analysis of current legislation and court practice. The term implies a legal type of discrimination that can be expressed in the employment of some category of workers to eliminate gender, race, age or any other misbalance among workers. But the opponents of compensation discrimination refer to the fact that it gives rise to a reverse discrimination of those workers who have no protection on a legislative level. It is admissible to apply the main provisions on compensation discrimination within the framework of a social experiment in several regions of the Russian Federation. In case of its effectiveness, this rule can be entrenched in the federal law.