Thursday, August 4, 2011

Where does your state rank in discrimination filings? Ohio … we’re not so bad

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, 2010 was a banner year for workplace discrimination claims. Nationwide, there was a record 99,922 charges of discrimination filed. How does your state rank? Businessweek figured that out too. For example, my state, Ohio, ranks 10th, which is not all that bad given that Ohio is the 7th largest state by total population.

Here’s the list of top 20:

  1. Texas (2nd largest state by total population)
  2. California (1)
  3. Florida (4)
  4. Georgia (9)
  5. Indiana (15)
  6. Illinois (5)
  7. Pennsylvania (6)
  8. North Carolina (10)
  9. Tennessee (17)
  10. Ohio (7)
  11. Alabama (23)
  12. New York (3)
  13. Michigan (8)
  14. Colorado (22)
  15. Virginia (12)
  16. Arizona (16)
  17. Missouri (18)
  18. Mississippi (31)
  19. Arkansas (32)
  20. Washington (13)

Based on total population, Ohio does a little better than expected. New York and Washington do much better than expected. Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Colorado, Mississippi, and Arkansas do much worse than expected.

Just one more reason for companies to consider Ohio for their operations—you’re less likely to be sued here.


Written by Jon Hyman, a partner in the Labor & Employment group of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz. For more information, contact Jon at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.