Title VII—Scope Of Coverage
• Covers employers (Sec. 701(b)), employment
agencies (Sec. 701(c)), labor organizations (Sec.
701)(d))
• “Employer”: “a person engaged in an industry
affecting commerce who has fifteen or more
employees for each working day in each of
twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or
preceding calendar year, and any agent of such a
person . . .” Sec. 701(b)
Title VII—Scope Of Coverage
• “Employee”: “an individual employed by an
employer,” Sec. 701(f)
• “Employee” or independent contractor?
▫ Note: exotic dancers and the Fair Labor Standards
Act
Title VII—Scope Of Coverage
• Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Darden, 503 U.S.
318 (1992)
• Consider “the hiring party’s right to control the
manner and means by which the product is
accomplished”
• Relevant factors (not exhaustive, no one is
determinative): skill, source of tools, location of
the work, duration of parties’ relationship, hired
party’s discretion over when and how long to
work, etc.
Title VII—Scope Of Coverage
• Hishon v. King & Spalding (U.S. 1984)
▫ Facts; issue
• “A benefit that is part and parcel of the
employment relationship may not be doled out
in a discriminatory fashion, even if the employer
would be free under the employment contract
simply not to provide the benefit at all.”
• The law firm’s arguments
• Remand
Title VII—Scope Of Coverage
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Counting “employees”: the payroll method
Joint employers
Prison inmates
Shareholder-directors
State credentialing commission
U.S. citizens working abroad for U.S. companies
The Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and
Navigation
Title VII—Race/Color
• McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transp. Co. (U.S.
1976)
▫ Facts; issue
• Held: Title VII prohibits racial discrimination
against white employees upon the same
standards applicable to nonwhite workers
• Application: McDonnell Douglas
• Claim against the union, Local 988
Title VII—Race/Color
• The “black-oriented radio station” and the
“white disk jockey”
▫ Note the BFOQ defense
• “Black hair styles,” “black clothing,” beards
• Names: Emily or Greg; Lakisha or Jamal
• Hostile work environments: racial epithets,
“boy,” nooses, banana peels