Affirmative Action Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Affirmative Action - Term Paper Example The following will explore job discrimination with an eye to how this form of discrimination affects certain groups of people in the labor market and how society has attempted to protect these people from discrimination. Taking a controversial approach to minority set aside programs, this essay will then persuasively argue that since these programs promote discrimination themselves, they are inherently defeatist and promote the same type of behavior that they try to eradicate. We now begin with an overview of the reasons for minority set aside programs – also called â€Å"Affirmative Action† in the United States – and this will follow with a concise rebuttal of the needs for such programs. Discrimination in the workforce affects people from all walks of life. Accordingly, the employment opportunities of half of our population are hindered by latent and overt sexism in the offices of America. It is well known that women in America earn substantially less than their male counterparts. The Equal Pay Act (EPA) of 1963 was established more than four decades ago to protect men and women who perform the same tasks from wage-based discrimination. Sexism is an unfortunate aspect of our modern society but the EPA seeks to combat it through positive legislation aimed at correcting the pay discrepancy between men and women in the labor force. Older workers also face a variety of impediments to their active inclusion in the labor force and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967 protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older from discrimination at work. Finally, people with disabilities face a plethora of hurdles in society and the Americans with Disabilitie s Act (ADA) of 1990 was established to ensure the full inclusion of people with disabilities in American society. Covering a wide variety of instances of discrimination, the ADA is one of the most recent pieces of legislation mentioned above which aims to tackle problems