For sheer diversity among its people, it is hard to think of a country that rivals the United States.
For indeed, the U.S. is a kaleidoscopic melting pot of stark differences and permutations across a broad range of considerations.
The country is home to every race and ethnic group on earth. People across the nation are differentiated by color, religious belief, distinctive clothing, political views, sexual identity and preferences and a host of other traits and singular attributes.
Such a medley of difference can spell division and confusion, and that is unquestionably the case sometimes in the United States.
But it can also bring union, which has decidedly been a defining characteristic of the United States. Most reasonable people would likely state most readily that the country’s great diversity is what centrally underlies its strength.
And honoring that diversity requires openness toward fairness and inclusion in every realm of society.
Including the job market.
Especially the job market, in fact, given that every individual and family needs fair access to employment and the opportunity to earn a living wage to provide for life’s necessities.
Discrimination obviously undermines those reasonable expectations and has historically created an unfair playing field for some select persons and communities.
As a writer in a recent article on the myriad forms of employment discrimination notes, it can be easy to think of discrimination primarily in terms of how it affects people in the workplace, which is, of course, a valid concern.
As that article further notes, though, discriminatory behavior often confronts would-be workers at the interview/hiring stage as well.
And discrimination at the so-called “front end of employment” can be truly wide ranging, based on a disinclination to hire someone on grounds of race, sex, age, a disability, religious belief, gender identity, sexual orientation and other factors.
The country has evolved greatly from earlier times, with strong federal and state laws now existing that safeguard workers against discriminatory behaviors and provide for penalties against wrongdoers.
Diversity in the workplace is universally empowering and flatly conducive to an enhanced bottom line for businesses.
As such, ensuring impartiality in hiring, promotion and retention practices is critically important, with strong labor laws and aggressive legal representation on behalf of prospective and actual workers being prime catalysts that ensure fundamental fairness.