Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 5th Edition by Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, Patrick Wright

Exercise 13

Record-Breaking Discrimination Charges
In recent years, as businesses and individuals have struggled with an agonizingly slow economic recovery, a growing number of workers have said they faced another kind of agony: discrimination by employers. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported in January 2011 that charges of employment discrimination hit a record the previous year. A year later, the EEOC said charges broke the 2010 record, hitting an all-time high of 99,947 in 2011.
What were employees complaining about? Charges of race and sex discrimination remained the top complaints, although their numbers actually declined. Charges of disability and age discrimination rose, however. Among the cases resolved by the EEOC, disability discrimination charges cost employers $103.4 million in penalties in 2011, up 35.9 percent from the year before.
Why does it matter how employers treat employees during a time of high unemployment?