Does Title VII permit a group of plaintiffs to bring a lawsuit claiming discrimination based on “sex-plus-age,” and if so, what standard should the court apply? Last week, this question was addressed for the first time by a federal appellate court, with the Tenth Circuit allowing a “sex-plus-age” disparate impact claim brought by a group of female plaintiffs to proceed. Under the standard applied by the appeals court, the plaintiffs will need to show that they were treated unfavorably relative to older men.
The Tenth Circuit’s decision in Frappied is especially noteworthy because the court applied reasoning about Title VII causation standards articulated by the Supreme Court just weeks earlier in Bostock v. Clayton County, the landmark decision finding that sex discrimination under Title VII includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and signals that the High Court’s reasoning in Bostock is likely to have a significant impact on the interpretation of employment discrimination laws going forward far beyond the issues raised in that case.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.