Spencer Johnson McCammon LLP

Topic of the Week

Gender Identity Discrimination

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Blog of the Week

Amazon is crushing Walmart in one metric: The rate of serious injuries in its warehouses

Immediately following a report that Amazon’s workplace injury rates were significantly higher than those of its top rivals, the online retail giant announced a tweak to its notorious “time off task” metric, which workers and advocates say is responsible for the punishing pace that leads to many injuries.

Thought for the Week

"What the LGBT community want is [for being LGBT] to be ordinary so that you are seen to be valued on merit. When our employees don’t have to think twice about struggling for the same benefits, recognition, or are afraid of being safe, then productivity goes up."

–Claudia Brind-Woody, VP & Managing Director, IBM

List of the Week

from The National LGBT Workers Center

BARRIERS FOR LGBT EMPLOYEES

A recent study suggests that nearly 50% of LGBT workers remain closeted at work and fear being stereotyped or jeopardizing professional connections. Anti-LGBT bias is highly prevalent in the workplace and creates massive hurdles in the day-to-day:

Hiring/Firing

• 27% of transgender workers reported being fired, not hired, or denied promotion in 2016-2017.

Wages Despite comprising

• 4.5% of adults in the United States, LGBT adults comprise 6.2% of people who earn less than $36,000 a year.
• 1 22% of LGBT workers were not paid or promoted at the same rate as colleagues.
• Gay men report higher salaries than lesbian women, but both report less income than non-LGBT colleagues. 

Benefits

• Only 1 out of 5 U.S. companies offer paid family leave for LGBT employees.
• Only 58% of Fortune 500 companies offer transgender-inclusive benefits.

Top Five News Headlines

1. Insurance Brokers and COVID-19 Shutdowns
2. OSHA Promulgates Emergency Temporary Standard for COVID-19 for Healthcare Employers
3. Ready or not, back to the workplace we might go…
4. DHS Issues New Policies on Expedited Processing, Requests for Evidence, and More
5. Connecticut Amends Pay Equity Law, Requiring Disclosure of Wage Ranges to Applicants, Employees