New York Employment Lawyer Blog

A recent New York Times article reported that the economic downturn has had the same negative impact on the female members of the workforce as it has had on male employees. The article describes that this is the first time since the women’s movement that the same percentage of women at work has fallen, instead of rising, as compared to men.

At first, economists attributed the drop-off to women deciding to stay home to raise families or maintain a home. However, economists now believe that women are reacting as men have to the slowing economy by dropping out and waiting for more favorable financial conditions.

The study, initiated by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, cites the evidence that women are leaving the workforce “on par with men,” and believes the situation holds “potentially disastrous consequences for families.”

The United States is known as the land of opportunity. Millions of immigrants have flocked to its shores in order to escape persecution start a new life in a country free from harassment, discrimination, and intolerance. This too became true for Americans with disabilities in the early 1970s with the passing of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and then with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It was then that employees with disabilities were officially recognized as having protected rights against unfounded disability discrimination.

However, despite the “good intentions” behind the ADA, a recent article in The National Law Journal described the shortcomings of the bill and pushed for Senate approval of the ADA Amendment Act (ADAAA). The article described the inadequacies of the ADA, citing the dilemma Americans with disabilities face - if they attempt to mitigate their disabilities, they can no longer be considered disabled, however, if they do not, they can be considered unfit to perform their job.

The article acknowledges the potential problem that people will take advantage of the ADAAA in order to obtain monetary compensation for concocted disabilities, however, the article states how individuals who are truly disabled will get the opportunities they deserve to have a role in the workforce free from disability discrimination.

A recent article in The American Lawyer reported that a major U.S. corporation has lost its third straight wage-and-hour class action lawsuit. After a three month bench trial, Judge Robert King, Jr. decided that in failing to provide rest breaks to employees, the company broke state laws over two million times. Judge King awarded $6.5 million to the plaintiffs, which made up 56,000 employees in the state of Minnesota. According to the lead lawyer of the class, Franklin Azar, the corporation faces at least five more such wage-and-hour suits.