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33 Wayne L. Rev. 1111 (1986-1987)
Challenging No-Spouse Employment Policies as Marital Status Discrimination: A Balancing Approach

handle is hein.journals/waynlr33 and id is 1125 raw text is: CHALLENGING NO-SPOUSE EMPLOYMENT POLICIES AS MARITAL STATUS DISCRIMINATION: A BALANCING APPROACH I. INTRODUCTION Employment policies prohibiting close relatives from working in the same company arise from the concern that unqualified persons may be hired or favored based upon their status as a relative, rather than upon their ability. Nepotism, the term describing the practice of hiring close relatives, is a derivative of nephew, which literally means favoritism benefiting nephews.' However, modern antinepot- ism employment policies apply to both immediate blood relatives2 and relatives by marriage.3 Early antinepotism employment policies focused upon the potential employment problems arising from the perception of favoritism exhibited towards relatives.' Today, with more women entering the work force,5 employers are also enacting employment policies specifically prohibiting spouses from working for the same company.6 Two types of employment policies involve spouses: policies banning only spouses from working in the same company (no-spouse employment policies), and those banning all im- mediate family members, including spouses, from working in the same company (antinepotism employment policies).7 No-spouse em- 1. WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY 954 (2d ed. 1984). 2. The immediate family generally includes parents, children, siblings, grand- parents, stepparents, stepchildren, and spouses. Other antinepotism employment pol- icies include a further prohibition against hiring aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws. 3. See, e.g., infra notes 51-69 and accompanying text. 4. For a thorough history of nepotism law, see Wexler, Husbands and Wives: The Uneasy Case for Antinepotism Rules, 62 B.U.L. REv. 75, 75-80 (1982). 5. Id. at 77 n.17. Since 1950 the number of women in the civilian work force has increased dramatically. In 1950 there were approximately 17 million working women. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1986, at 390 (106th ed.) Washington, D.C., 1985. By 1970 that number increased to ap- proximately 30 million. Id. In 1984 almost 46 million women were employed in the labor market, id., and that number continues to increase. 6. Generally, spouses are subject to the application of antinepotism employ- ment policies in three different situations. First, spouses are subject to these policies when one spouse seeks to work in the company that currently employs his or her spouse. Second, when both spouses apply to the same company at the same time. Finally, when individuals working for the same company subsequently marry. 7. Antinepotism employment policies exclude more than just relatives by mar- riage, while no-spouse employment policies only exclude married couples from em- ployment in the same company. This Note focuses on those policies that apply only 1111