Protect Working People Harmed by Employment Discrimination.
End Congress’ Unfair Limits on Who Gets Justice
The Problem:
Workers who win employment discrimination cases cannot receive a jury’s full award for the harm they suffer because of an outdated and unfair provision in a 1991 law that caps such damage awards. Victims continue to suffer while their employer continues business as usual, undeterred.
The Solution:
Congress should pass the “Equal Remedies Act of 2024” and eliminate the statutory damages caps in cases of intentional employment discrimination. The “Equal Remedies Act of 2024” would also modernize the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) to allow age discrimination victims the opportunity to argue to receive compensatory and punitive damages, like other victims of discrimination.
Share your story and join the fight.
Damage Caps in Employment Discrimination Cases
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an employer may not discriminate against someone with respect to hiring, firing, compensation, or other terms of employment, or segregate/categorize based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
The Americans with Disabilities Act similarly protects workers with disabilities and requires employers (with limited exceptions) to provide reasonable accommodations to workers who have an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. The law also protects workers’ privacy interests against intrusive inquiry by employers about their medical concerns.
When a jury finds that an employer violated the employment anti-discrimination law, and determines punitive and compensatory damages, the statute limits how much the court can award the worker.
The current limits — unchanged since 1991 — vary depending on the size of the employer:
For employers with 15-100 employees, the limit is $50,000.
For employers with 101-200 employees, the limit is $100,000.
For employers with 201-500 employees, the limit is $200,000.
For employers with more than 500 employees, the limit is $300,000.
History
After several United States Supreme Court decisions weakened employment discrimination protections under Title VII, Congress passed civil rights legislation to reverse the Court and make it easier for plaintiffs to vindicate their rights in discrimination cases. President George H.W. Bush vetoed the 1990 bill. Later, in a compromise with civil rights leaders and business interests, Congress and President Bush enacted a law to allow for compensatory and punitive damages in discrimination cases, but included damages caps in the final version of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening civil rights protections but curtailing the ability of harmed employees to recover the full amount of their damages.
Senator Ted Kennedy introduced the Equal Remedies Act of 2007 to eliminate Title VII and ADA damage caps (co-sponsors included Sens. Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama). However, since that time Congress has not addressed the harms caused by damage caps.
Harms Caused by Caps
Often, juries will award plaintiffs damages well above the statutory caps for victims of discrimination. However, a judge then must reduce that award — in many cases by more than 90%! Companies know this and recognize discrimination as a cost of doing business.
What’s worse is that inflation has risen by 124% since 1991. Caps have not, however. Every year the Equal Remedies Act is not passed, the spending power of jury awards becomes less and less; exacerbating these worker harms.
Testimonials
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Wynona Mixon
Wynona was raped on August 12, 2011 at the federal penitentiary in Tucson, AZ. In her own words, “the rape was not the worst thing to happen to me.”
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Randy Oden
After working for Wellfirst Technologies for a little over a year, I got to the point where my injured knee had to be replaced. When I gave notice to the company of my intent to have the surgery my direct supervisor commented that he had also had a knee replacement and that I should return to work 4 weeks after the surgery. While I was still off work and doing physical therapy on my knee, the company sent someone to my house to terminate me. I immediately lost my health insurance and ability to afford the physical therapy I needed to rehab my knee.
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Fariba Moeinpour
Ms. Moeinpour’s ordeal began when she was transferred to a University of Alabama research lab led by Dr. Clinton Grubbs. Shortly after, she began to face relentless racial harassment from a colleague, Mary Jo Cagle. In her bid to report this abuse, her supervisor, Grubbs, went to unimaginable lengths to silence her: he called the police and physically attacked her. The terror didn't end there—Ms. Moeinpour was wrongfully arrested for domestic violence and spent 30 harrowing hours in jail. Though the charges were dismissed, she was diagnosed with PTSD and needed therapy to cope with the aftermath of her supervisor's retaliatory actions.
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Aaron Jensen
Aaron’s is a long and sad story, starting well before the litigation. He was so devastated by all the losses surrounding the horrible treatment by West Jordan - he lost his home, his marriage, his career, his friends - that he became deeply depressed and suicidal. At trial in 2017, Aaron, his dad, and his therapist all testified about his extreme depression, which I believe is why the verdict for emotional distress was so high. Sadly, these damages were capped and Aaron lost his life in 2022.
