Anti-Discrimination Policy and Online Access: How States EEO Office’s Educate Citizens and Provide Enforcement Mechanisms

• In Event: 40461 - Section on Sociology of Law Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Discrimination and Displacement

Abstract

Individuals cannot protect their rights as employees unless they are aware of those rights and given an avenue to pursue sanctions for violations of them. In contemporary America, one way in which employees can be both made aware of their rights and provided the means to protect those rights is via public websites for state anti-discrimination agencies. These sites can be especially important as the population has increasingly shifted in favor of accomplishing various tasks online. Furthermore, with state budgets in flux, such sites can serve as cost efficient means of connecting residents to a valuable resource.

Despite these sites being an important means of communicating with the public, little research has systematically examined how states vary in both the content of these websites, and whether they even exist to begin with. This paper demonstrates how the depth and breadth of information provided via these sites varies dramatically, as does employee’s ability to use them for claim filing. Such differences have important theoretical and policy implications for the reduction of discrimination in the workforce.

Author

• Christopher Nathan Kleps, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay