Los Angeles Employment Law Blog

When an employee in California or elsewhere pursues an employment discrimination case, it may fall under Section 1981 or under Title VII. While both laws are similar, Congress and the Supreme Court have considered them to be distinct from each other. The major difference between the two statutes is that Section 1981 prohibits blatant discrimination while Title VII prohibits discrimination even if there was no intent to discriminate.

California workers who file discrimination lawsuits against their employers may need to identify a similarly situated employee who was treated differently. The idea of the similarly situated employee may differ if the case is a class action one, but for an individual complaint, a similarly situated employee is someone who is comparable in several ways. Factors such as experience level, supervisor, performance evaluations and job duties may make another worker a similarly situated employee.

A recent survey published by JAMA Internal Medicine, 4 out of 5 respondents out of nearly 6,000 physician mothers surveyed reported experiencing discrimination, either in reaction to gender or maternity. While there were limitations to the design study, and there is a possibility that respondents may have self-selected to some degree, the survey quantifies what many female doctors have been reporting for years.