In: Operations Management
Hooters does not hire males to fill the position it has called “Hooters Girl.” Does this practice violate US equal employment opportunity law?
As per the equal opportunity laws (i.e. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) in USA that are enforced by EEOC it is illegal for an organization to discriminate against someone on the basis of various parameters like their gender, race, color, religion etc. There are certain exceptions to this rule.
Hooters practice of hiring only females as servers does not violate the US equal employment opportunity law. This is because for Hooters having a female as a server is a bona fide job qualification. Hooters business and value proposition is based on the premise that its customers are served by attractive female servers. This proposition is an integral part of Hooters business strategy. Thus the job qualification for the position of a server at Hooters is that the applicant has to be female. The requirement of having a female server is an absolute necessary for the normal operation of Hooters business and so the fact that Hooters does not hire males as servers do not violate US equal employment opportunity law.
(It should be noted here that Hooters do have to hire male employees for positions other than servers like bartenders. If they do not do so then they will be violating the equal opportunity laws in USA).