Understanding Legal Battles

If you have certain employees at your company that have worked really hard, you may decide to award them with raises or bonuses. While this is a great way to encourage these workers to continue performing well, you may also run into trouble if some employees find out and begin complaining about this. If you want to make sure you are giving raises fairly and avoid problems where employees feel discriminated against, you may want to consider the following tips.

Understand the laws

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an organization responsible for determining fair wage and labor laws in this country. This organization has set up rules and guidelines all employers must follow, and it is very important for you to understand these rules and how they work.

The primary thing to understand is that it is illegal to base wages on a person's demographics. In other words, you cannot base pay on a person's gender, religion, race, or sexual preference. A person's wages must be based on the rates you pay to your workers as well as the performance of the employees.

You should set up a system for pay raises

A good idea to do that may help you avoid discriminating against certain employees is setting up a system for pay raises. If you do this and follow the system you set up, it will be fair for all the employees that work for you. This system might involve an employer performance evaluation each year. Each time an employee receives a certain score on the evaluation, they will receive a raise. The raises should be consistent to each employee, and you could have them listed as a certain dollar amount or percentage of the person's income.

The goal is to make sure you use the exact same grading system for all employees so each person has an equal opportunity for advancement in the company.

Make sure the objectives and expectations are clear

In addition, you should make sure every employee fully understands their job title, description, and duties, and that each understands exactly how pay raises and bonuses are determined. By doing this, you can make sure each employee has a fair chance of earning pay raises on a regular basis.

Discrimination in the workplace is a serious issue and can get your company into a lot of trouble, even if you didn't mean for it to happen. If you would like help setting up a system for this, you may want to hire an employer lawyer in your area for help. For more information, contact Mohajerian A Professional Law Corporation or a similar firm.