Professor Question: Introduction to the Regulatory Environment {PLEASE READ}

Class, feel free to extend the discussion by reviewing the "Professor Analysis" below and letting the class know your thoughts on this issue. What are your thoughts onIntroduction to the Regulatory Environment(below). Why is it important to have employment laws in place for citizens and our society? Discuss.

Do you agree with the legal concept?why or why not? Why is this legal issue or concept important to the world of Employment Law? Discuss?

Can you find a Florida state statute or other statutes that deals with this legal issue? (one website for Florida legal statutes iswww.flsenate.gov

(Links to an external site.)

). Please list the statute information. What did you find interesting about the state statue?

YOU BE THE JUDGE:Can you provide an example case related to this legal issue"? State the full name of the case, what was the IssueRuleAnalysisConclusion in this legal case?Do you agree with the decision in the case by the court? Why or why not? How would you have decided differently if you were the judge?

Please feel free to provide any additional article or written analysis on this legal issue.

In The News:Can you find any information "In The News" related to this legal issue? Feel free to

NOTE: Responses must be based upon research from the course textbook and other official academic sources. Please feel free to include the page #'s referenced in the course textbook. (include websites as a supplement to these other sources)

Professor Analysis: Introduction to the Regulatory Environment {PLEASE READ}

1. Introduction to the Regulatory Environment

If an employer wants to hire someone to work every other hour every other week, it should be allowed to do that, as long as it can locate an employee who wants that type of job. The freedom to contract is crucial to freedom of the market; an employee may choose to work or not to work for a given employer, and an employer may choose to hire or not to hire a given applicant.

It is unlikely that Congress would enact legislation that would require employers to hire certain individuals or groups of individuals (like a pure quota system) or that would prevent employers and employees from freely negotiating the responsibilities of a given job. (See Exhibit 1.1, "Realities about the Regulation of Employment.")

Employers historically have had the right to discharge an employee whenever they wished to do so. However, Congress has passed employment-related laws when it believes that there is some imbalance of power between the employee and the employer. For example, Congress has passed laws that require employers to pay minimum wages and avoid using certain criteria such as race or gender in reaching specific employment decisions. These laws reflect the reality that employers stand in a position of power in the employment relationship. Legal protections granted to employees seek to make the "power relationship" between employer and employee one that is fair and equitable.

1. Is Regulation Necessary?

There are scholars who do not believe that regulation of discrimination and other areas of the employment relationship is necessary. Proponents of this view believe that the market will work to encourage employers' rational, nonbiased behavior.

Some economists have argued that rational individuals interested in profit maximization will never hesitate to hire the most qualified applicants, regardless of their race. Decisions that are dependent on race or gender would be inefficient, they argue, since they are based on the (generally) incorrect belief that members of one clas are less worthy of a job than those of another. Therefore, they will not let prejudices cause them to hire less qualified individuals and employ a less efficient workforce.

However, opponents of this position contend that discrimination continues because often employers are faced with the choice of twoequallyqualified applicants for a position. In that case, the prejudiced employer suffers no decrease in efficiency of her or his firm as a result of choosing the white or male applicant over the minority or female applicant. In addition, human beings do not always act rationally or in ways that society might deem to be in the best interests of society, as a whole. Finally, given the composition of the work force, if a biased firm chooses only from the stock of white males, it still might have a pretty qualified stock from which to choose; so it can remain awfully competitive. Therefore, economic forces do not afford absolute protection against employment discrimination where the discrimination is based on race, gender, national origin, or other protected categories.

Lecture Notes:

• Generally, an employer may choose not to hire anyone who is blonde. Hair color is not a protected class and decisions on that basis are legal, as long as they do not have an adverse impact. (One may want to note that the opposite rule may have an adverse impact. If one was to hireonlyblondes, this rule may have a disparate impact on Blacks or Asians.)
• This might be a good place to stop and discuss Exhibit 1.1,Realities about the Regulation of Employment. How many students believe these "realities?" Why? Have they had any experience with any of these issues? Is there a difference in connection with these realities between what the law says and how it is implemented in the work place?
• After they have done the reading, it is helpful to ask several students to argue that regulation is absolutely necessary in order to bring about equality of opportunity, then pose them against several other students who argue the other side.