Please discuss the primary purpose of antidiscrimination laws in regard to selection.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The primary intent of these laws is to prohibit employment practices that unfairly discriminate against people in various protected groups, such as racial/ethnic minorities, women, and older candidates. In general, federal, state, and local antidiscrimination laws require that selection decisions must be valid and fair if they differentially impact protected group members. Selection decisions that differentially impact protected group members must provide equal treatment and be equally predictive of success for minorities and other protected groups in order to be fair and legal. The most commonly used term—but only part of the story—in an evaluation of fairness is adverse impact, when candidates from a protected group, A, (e.g., women and minorities) are proportionately less likely to be hired than candidates in the group, B, with the highest selection rate (for good discussions on the topic, see Guion, 1998, and the SIOP Principles, 2003).