united-states employment discrimination
Is stating preference for women or people of color on Twitter for a job listing discrimination?
<p>Something I've seen become more common is for folks working at a company to promote a job listing on Twitter, etc. and to say something along the lines of &quot;I'd love to see more women/people of color apply&quot;. This is done in the interest of promoting diversity in the industry, but I've always avoided posting these sort of messages as I'm worried that it may be discrimination.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is illegal for an employer to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference for or discourages someone from applying for a job because of his or her race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.</p>
<p>For example, a help-wanted ad that seeks &quot;females&quot; or &quot;recent college graduates&quot; may discourage men and people over 40 from applying and may violate the law.</p>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov//laws/practices/index.cfm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices</a> (Job Advertisements section) U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission</li>
</ul>
<p>If an employee of a company posts &quot;I'd love to see more women, minorities, and people of color apply to this posting: <code>&lt;link&gt;</code>&quot;, is that considered showing a preference, or is that limited to the contents of the job advertisement itself? What are the ramifications if this is not legal?</p>

<p>Under U.S. federal law, and under the few state laws of which I am aware, it is not unlawful to expand a pool of applicants based on a protected class such as race, age, sex, etc., but it is unlawful to select an applicant for employment based on a protected class. An advertisement could lawfully encourage applications by persons having certain protected attributes (e.g., born and raised in South America; Native American; Veteran; transgender) in order to diversify the workforce, but it could not lawfully suggest that hiring preference would be given to applicants with those protected attributes. That's a fine line, and it's easy for an employer to cross it, either willfully or inadvertantly. It's best--from both a practical and a legal perspective--to determine the hiring criteria and process before seeking applicants; and to separate that screening process from the advertising process. The advertising process could, for example, target underrepresented groups as long as it did not preclude other persons/groups from learning about or applying for the opportunities. </p>
