Reviews provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act that affect the public sector; examines in detail the concepts of reasonable accommodation and undue hardship in the act and in Equal Employment Opportunities Commission interpretations. (SK)

(Available from Public Personnel Management, Room 240, 1313 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637; $15.00 annually, $3.00 single copy)

Employers should keep a data base containing information on all applicants, employees, and previous employees. This information should be maintained continuously. (Author/IRT)

Among the problems are disagreement on how much information should be collected and, because of the use of broad-band tests, the difficulty of deciding who is an applicant for particular job. (Author/IRT)

Workers of Mexican descent are increasing in the labor force. The vast majority of legal Mexican residents and U.S. citizens of Mexican descent have experienced unemployment and employment discrimination. Experiences differ by place of birth, sex, and generation. (SK)

The effectiveness of the Americans with Disabilities Act has been limited because its definition of disability is open ended and other terms such as reasonable accommodation are vague. The courts must settle test cases before it will be known if the law is meeting its goal. (SK)

Results of an examination of 41 Internet-based state job application forms indicated that 97.5 percent possessed at least one inadvisable question especially related to past salary, age, and driver's license information. States with larger populations had more problematic questions than less populated states. (JOW)

Describes the kinds of economic analysis that Fairfax County, Virginia, used to win a case charging it with discriminating against Blacks in its hiring practices. (IRT)

Examines the burden of proof between employer and employee in fair employment lawsuits, highlighting related court rulings. Reviews problems of existing procedures that magnify testing as a legal issue, and considers back pay and plaintiff attorney fees as added costs to employers who lose such cases. (Author/JG)

In this analytical essay, the author examines the arguments of comparable worth advocates and explores the notion of an inherently sex-biased job market. (Author)

Data from 138 Senior Executive Service members were analyzed to explain why, although approximately half of federal civil servants are female, only 13% of federal executives are. Male and female executives were similar in knowledge, abilities, skills, and leadership, suggesting that federal executives are treated equitably. (JOW)

Describes a system, based on job analysis, to assess costs of reasonable accommodation to guarantee compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Illustrates how job analysis is used to list and rate job functions and requisite abilities and to estimate costs of accommodation. (SK)

Responses from 251 of 831 public sector administrators yielded no single idea or definition of work force diversity; 43.5% believed it was the same as equal employment opportunity/affirmative action, 40.5% thought it was different. Of individual characteristics of diversity, 94.9% selected race, 85.1% gender. Existing diversity programs were…

Analyzes the practice of race norming (adapting test scores on the basis of race/ethnicity) and its justification. Outlines the background of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which prohibited race norming, and considers future implications for recruitment and selection. (SK)