The root meaning of the term discriminate is “to distinguish one object from an other,” a

morally neutral and not necessarily wrongful activity. However, in modern usage, the
term is not morally neutral; it is usually intended to refer to the wrongful act of
distinguishing illicitly among people not on the basis of individual merit, but on the basis
of prejudice or some other invidious or morally reprehensible attitude. This morally
charged notion of invidious discrimination, as it applies to employment. In this sense, to
discriminate in employment is to make an adverse decision (or set of decisions) against
employees (or prospective employees) who belong to a certain class because of
morally unjustified prejudice toward members of that class. Thus, discrimination in
employment must involve three basic elements. First, it is a decision against one or
more employees (or prospective employees) that is not based on individual merit, such
as the ability to perform a given job, seniority, or other morally legistimate qualifications.
Second, the decision derives solely or in part from racial or sexual prejudice, false
stereotypes, or some other kind of morally injustified attitude against members of the
class to which the employee belongs. Third, the decision (or set of decisions) has a
harmful or negative impact on the interest of the employees, perhaps costing them jobs,
promotions, or better pay.

The arguments mustered against discrimination generally fall into three groups: (a)
utilitarian arguments, which claim that discrimination leads to an inefficient use of
human resources; (b) rights arguments, which claim that discrimination violates basic
human rights, and (c) justice arguments, which claim that discrimination results in an
unjust distribution of society’s benefits and burdens.

 Utility
The standard utilitarian argument against racial and sexual discrimination is based on
the idea that a society’s productivity will be optimized to the extent that jobs are
awarded on the basis of competency (or “merit”). Different jobs, the argument goes,
require different skills and personality traits if they are to be carried out in as productive
a manner as possible.
Utilitarian arguments of this sort, however, have encountered two kind of objections.
First, if the argument is correct, then jobs should be assigned on the basis of job related
qualifications only so long as such assignments will advance the public welfare.
Second, the utilitarian argument must also answer the charge of opponents who hold
that society as a whole may benefit from some forms of sexual discrimination.
  Rights
Kantian Theory, for example, holds that human beings should be treated as ends and
never used merely as means. At a minimum, the principle means that each individual
has a moral right to be treated as a free person equal to any other person and that all
individuals have a correlative moral duty to treat each individual as a free and equal
person. Discriminatory practices violate the principle in two ways. Fist, discrimination is
based on the belief that one group is inferior to other groups. Second, discrimination
places the members of groups that are discriminated against in lower social and
economic positions: women and minorities have fewer job opportunities and are given
lower salaries. Again, the right to be treated as a free and equal person is violated.

 Justice
John Rawls argued that among the principles of justice that the enlightened parties to
the “Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are attached to
offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.
Discrimination violates this principle by arbitrarily closing off to minorities the more
desirable offices and positions in an institution, thereby not giving them an opportunity
equal to that og others. Arbitrarily giving some individuals less of an opportunity to
compete for jobs than others is unjust.

Disciminatory Practices
Among the practices now widely recognized as discriminatory are the following:
1. Recruitment Practices.
Firms that rely solely on the word-of-mouth referrals of present employees to recruit
new workers tend to recruit only from those racial and sexual groups that are already
represented in their labor force.

2. Screening Practices.
Job qualifications are discriminatory when they are not relevant to the job to be
performed.

3. Promotion Practices.
 Promotion, job progression, and transfer practices are discriminatory when employees
place White males on job tracks separate from those open to women and minorities.

4. Conditions of Employment.
Wages and salaries are discriminatory to the extent that equal wages and salaries are
not given to people who are doing essentially the same work.

5. Discharge.
Firing an employee on the basis of race or sex is a clear from of discrimination

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/253587?journalCode=jpe
https://adavera.wordpress.com/the-ethics-of-job-discrimination/