HRM 546 Week 2 Hiring and Antidiscrimination Law Example

From Job Posting to Offer Letter: Auditing Keystone Fresh Markets' Hiring Process Against Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA and Background Check Law

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

HRM/546: Human Resource Law

Week 2 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Keystone Fresh Markets and its hiring data are composites written for a model paper; laws are summarized generally and should be confirmed with counsel.

Keystone Fresh Markets hires about 1,400 people a year across 38 stores, mostly part-time cashiers, stockers and deli workers, along with pharmacy technicians, pharmacists and assistant managers. Store managers screen applications, interview candidates and make offers, with HR handling background checks and drug tests. After an applicant filed a charge alleging that a store manager rejected him because of his age, the HR director ordered an audit of the entire hiring process. When hiring decisions are spread across 38 managers with little structure, legal risk comes less from any written policy than from what each manager does in an interview room. This paper reports that audit.

The Legal Framework for Hiring

The 1964 Civil Rights Act, through Title VII, forbids hiring discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin and sex, a term that reaches pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation. The Americans with Disabilities Act forbids discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects applicants 40 and older. Pennsylvania and Ohio laws add protections and cover smaller employers (Walsh, 2023). Applicants may bring claims under two main theories.

Disparate Treatment

Disparate treatment is intentional discrimination, such as rejecting an applicant because of age. Most cases rely on circumstantial evidence: the applicant shows that he was qualified, was rejected and the job went to someone outside the protected class or stayed open, after which the employer must state a legitimate reason, and the applicant may then show the reason is a pretext. In June 2025, the Supreme Court held unanimously that applicants from majority groups do not have to show extra background circumstances to bring such a claim, so the same standard applies to every applicant.

Disparate Impact

Disparate impact arises when a neutral practice, such as a test or requirement, excludes a protected group at a disproportionate rate. The Supreme Court recognized the theory in 1971 in a case involving high school diploma and test requirements that excluded Black applicants without being shown to predict job performance. The employer's defense is to prove that the practice is job related and justified by business necessity, after which the applicant may still win by showing a less discriminatory alternative. Federal guidance uses the four-fifths rule as a rough screen: a selection rate for one group below 80 percent of the highest group's rate suggests adverse impact.

Evidence That Hiring Discrimination Persists

Research shows that discrimination in hiring is common and varies by employer. Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) sent fictitious resumes and found that those with White-sounding names received 50 percent more callbacks. Kline et al. (2022) sent 83,000 applications to large U.S. employers and found that discrimination against Black applicants was concentrated among a subset of companies, with the most discriminatory firms in retail and auto services, and that centralized HR practices were associated with less discrimination. That finding matters for Keystone, where hiring is decentralized to store managers.

Job Postings

The audit reviewed 60 postings. Several used phrases such as "energetic, young team" and "recent graduates preferred," which suggest age preference and can be evidence of disparate treatment. Postings for cashiers required the ability to "stand for 8 hours," although most shifts are four to six hours and the store provides stools at some registers. Keystone will remove age-coded language and state essential functions accurately.

The Application Form

The online application asked for date of birth and high school graduation year, both unnecessary and both suggesting age. It also asked whether the applicant had "any medical condition that would prevent performing the job," a disability inquiry the ADA bars before a conditional offer. Both questions will be removed. Age verification for alcohol and pharmacy roles will be handled after the offer.

Interviews

Store managers conduct unstructured interviews, asking whatever they wish. Notes reviewed in the audit included questions about childcare, church attendance and plans to retire, none of them job related and all of them potential evidence of discrimination. Structured interviews, which ask every candidate an identical set of job-related questions and rate the answers against a guide, reduce bias and predict performance better. Keystone will adopt structured interview guides for each job.

Physical Testing

Stockers must lift 50-pound cases, and a lifting test is used for the role. The audit found that women passed at 68 percent of men's rate, below the four-fifths threshold. The test is likely defensible if it reflects actual job demands, so Keystone will document the weight and frequency of lifting in a job analysis and confirm the test matches, while offering lifting equipment where possible.

Background Checks: Federal Rules

Keystone uses a vendor for criminal background checks, which brings the Fair Credit Reporting Act into play. The employer must give a standalone written disclosure, obtain the applicant's authorization, provide a pre-adverse action notice that includes the report itself and the federal statement of consumer rights, allow time to respond and then send a final adverse action notice. The audit found that some stores rejected applicants immediately after reports arrived, skipping the pre-adverse action step.

Background Checks: State Limits and Fairness

Pennsylvania law limits employers to considering felony and misdemeanor convictions that relate to the applicant's suitability for the job and requires notice when a record is the basis for rejection. Blanket exclusions of anyone with a record can also create disparate impact. Agan and Starr (2018) found that when employers could not ask about records, some discriminated more against young Black men, suggesting that removing the question alone is not enough and that individualized assessment matters.

Drug Testing

Pennsylvania's medical marijuana law bars discrimination based solely on an employee's status as a certified patient, though employers may still prohibit impairment at work and in safety-sensitive positions. Ohio legalized adult-use marijuana in 2023 but preserved employers' right to maintain drug-free policies. Keystone will treat pharmacy, delivery and forklift roles as safety-sensitive, review positive tests in Pennsylvania for medical certification and focus policy on impairment.

Accommodation in Hiring

Applicants with disabilities may need accommodations in the hiring process itself, such as a screen-reader-compatible application or an interviewer who allows extra time. The audit found no way for applicants to request accommodation. Keystone will add a request contact to all postings and the application site.

Data Monitoring

Keystone will collect voluntary demographic data at application and review selection rates by store, job and stage twice a year. Kline et al. (2022) suggest that centralized review reduces variation among decision makers, so HR will review rejections in stores with outlier rates.

Training and Accountability

Store managers will complete training on lawful questions, structured interviews and documentation. Interview guides and score sheets will be retained for at least the period required by EEOC recordkeeping rules. Managers who repeatedly deviate will lose hiring authority.

Conclusion

The audit found age-coded postings, unlawful application questions, unstructured interviews, a lifting test with adverse impact, skipped background check notices and no accommodation process. Each is fixable. Structured interviews, accurate job descriptions, compliant background checks, careful drug testing policy and data review will reduce both legal exposure and the discrimination research shows is common in decentralized hiring.

References

Agan, A., & Starr, S. (2018). Ban the box, criminal records, and racial discrimination: A field experiment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133(1), 191-235. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjx028

Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2004). Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination. American Economic Review, 94(4), 991-1013. https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828042002561

Kline, P., Rose, E. K., & Walters, C. R. (2022). Systemic discrimination among large U.S. employers. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 137(4), 1963-2036. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjac024

Walsh, D. J. (2023). Employment law for human resource practice (7th ed.). Cengage.