Feds Warn Employers Against Discriminatory Hiring Algorithms

Advocates, lawyers, and researchers continue to sound the alarm as companies increasingly use artificial intelligence in their hiring processes. Job candidates can be assigned different scores based on arbitrary criteria, like whether they wear glasses or a headscarf, or have a bookshelf in the background. Black-sounding names and mentioning a women's college can be punished by hiring algorithms. People who stutter or have a physical disability can be disadvantaged because they can't interact with a keyboard.

All of this has gone undetected. The US Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have offered guidance on what businesses and government agencies must do to ensure their use of artificial intelligence complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The chair of the EEOC told reporters on Thursday that they cannot let these tools become a high-tech pathway to discrimination. Employers are instructed by the EEOC to give applicants information about what traits the algorithmic tools assess.

The assistant attorney general for civil rights told reporters in the same press conference that they are sounding an alarm about the dangers of blind reliance on artificial intelligence.

The Federal Trade Commission gave broad guidance on how businesses can use algorithms in 2020 and again in 2021, but this new guidance signals how the two agencies will handle violations of federal civil rights law. The Department of Justice can bring lawsuits against businesses and the EEOC can receive discrimination complaints from job seekers and employees that can result in fines or lawsuits.

The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is double the national average. The unemployment rate for people with mental-health related disabilities is high, and employers need to screen the software they use to make sure they don't lock people with disabilities out of the job market.

A 2020 Center for Democracy and Technology report about the ways hiring software can discriminate against people with disabilities was endorsed by the EEOC and DOJ on Thursday. Eliminating the automated screening out of people with disabilities and providing reasonable accommodation for people who may otherwise have difficulty engaging with the software or hardware involved in the hiring process are some of the things they include. The report encourages audits of hiring software before and after it is put into use, as well as bias against hiring people with disabilities online.

Lydia X.Z. Brown thought filling out personality tests with job applications was a weird game. They can't prove it, but they think they were discriminated against when applying for jobs at the mall where they grew up. After years of advocacy, Brown called Thursday's guidance a big win for people with disabilities.