When the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced plans two years ago to shift its focus to “systemic discrimination” in the office, it wasn’t kidding: In 2007, the EEOC more than doubled the number of enforcement actions from the previous year and recovered record-setting monetary awards.
Drug store giant Walgreens suffered the largest hit; last year, the EEOC ordered it to pay more than $24 million to thousands of African-American workers for discrimination in pay and promotion. Most systemic discrimination cases, however, also include findings of adverse impact in a company’s hiring processes, before many alleged victims are hired (if they’re hired at all).
