Marital Status UPD
Generally, employers should not use non job-related questions involving marital status, number and/or ages of children or dependents, or names of spouses or children of the applicant. Such inquiries may be asked after an employment offer has been made and accepted if needed for insurance or other legitimate business purposes.
marital status
The Wisconsin Fair Employment Act prohibits employers, employment agencies, labor unions, licensing agencies, and other persons from discriminating against employees, job applicants, or licensing applicants because of their membership in specific protected categories, including marital status.
Marital status is the status of being married, single, divorced, separated, or widowed. Going through a divorce or filing for divorce does not change an individual's marital status from being married.
State law protects workers from discrimination in discharge, job assignments, leave or benefits, licensing, retirement benefits, hiring, pay, promotion, training, and other employment actions on the basis of the worker's marital status.
It could be marital status discrimination if an employment action is taken against you because of your status of being married in general rather than your status of being married to a particular person. The prohibition on discrimination on the basis of marital status does not extend to the particular identity, personal characteristics, or actions of one's spouse. In other words, it is not marital status discrimination to treat you differently because of who your spouse is.
An employer may make pre-employment inquiries and keep employment records to determine statistically the age, race, color, creed, sex, national origin, ancestry or marital status of applicants and employees. Pre-employment inquiries and employment records which tend directly or indirectly to disclose such information do not constitute unlawful discrimination per se.
Wrongful termination does not necessarily mean that the action is prohibited by the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act. Only if your membership in a specific protected category, such as marital status, motivated the termination, can you file a complaint.
An employment action that is unfair, unequal, or wrong is not enough to file a discrimination complaint. To file a discrimination complaint, you must identify your membership in a specific protected category, such as marital status, as a reason or basis for the discrimination.
A Federal agency cannot discriminate against an employee or applicant with respect to the terms, conditions or privileges of employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, reprisal, marital status or political affiliation. Discrimination on these bases is prohibited by one or more of the following statutes: 5 U.S.C. subsection 2302(b)(1), 29 U.S.C. subsection 206(d), 29 U.S.C. subsection 631, 29 U.S.C. subsection 633a, 29 U.S.C. subsection 791 and 42 U.S.C. subsection 2000e-16.
If you believe that you have been the victim of unlawful discrimination on the basis of age, you must either contact an EEO counselor as noted above or give notice of intent to sue to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 180 calendar days of the alleged discriminatory action. If you are alleging discrimination based on marital status or political affiliation, you may file a written complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) (see contact information below). In the alternative (or in some cases, in addition), you may pursue a discrimination complaint by filing a grievance through your agency's administrative or negotiated grievance procedures, if such procedures apply and are available.
Durkheim investigated variations in social integration and its link to suicide mortality as early as 1897 [2], including the association between marital status and suicide rates. He argued that the reason for lower suicide risk among the married is that marriages provides stability, emotional support, and social integration, while separation, divorce, and widowhood rather promote social isolation [2]. The relationship between marital status and suicide risk has been reaffirmed by numerous studies [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. However, the selection into marriage is an important element. Some have argued that there is an educational gradient into marriage [11, 12], suggesting that marriage is increasingly becoming a privilege of the better educated. In gender-egalitarian societies, like Norway, the educational effect on marriage is positive for both sexes [11]. In addition to a selection into marriage, there is seemingly an educational selection out of marriage as well [13], making the better-educated less likely to experience marriage dissolution. It is currently unestablished how the relationship between marital status and educational attainment together may affect suicide risk.
In this paper, we aim to investigate the relationship between marital status, educational attainment, and suicide risk. Although it is well-known that marital status and educational attainment is strongly affiliated, it is unclear how this association in turn relates to suicide risk, and whether there are differences according to sex. This narrows the knowledge gap on suicide risk both because we investigate the interaction between marital status and educational attainment and obtain sex-specific results. Death by suicide is more common among men, and thus less is known about what increase and decrease the suicide risk among women. We will study this in a Norwegian setting by using large-scale register data covering the period 1975 to 2014. One of the main advantages of this study is the vast data source, providing reliability to the estimates for both sexes.
The data sources to be used are appropriate for studying the relationship between marital status, educational level, and suicide risk at an individual level. Norwegian registers cover the entire Norwegian population, thus reducing bias due to apostasy. They are updated regularly across decades, which allow for investigating rare phenomena like suicide, as well as providing information on time-varying aspects of the study population [31]. By linking several national registers, we have information on all the 4.073 suicides occurring in Norway in the age range 35 to 54, as well as demographic characteristics of the rest of the population of similar age. Examining the relationship between marital status, educational level, parenthood, and suicide has never been done in such a large-scale study population.
The conclusions from studies investigating the relationship between marital status and suicide are quite similar. Being married represent both lower mortality risk in general [3, 8, 32] and lower suicide risk [4,5,6,7, 9, 33, 34], compared to widowhood, separation, divorce, and never being married. Two studies investigating both marital status and educational attainment, point to marital status as a more important factor for suicide risk than educational inequalities. Kravdal et al. find a growing mortality risk among the non-married, compared to married, and state that educational changes only explain up to 5% of the increase [8]. Lorant et al. have compared data from eight European countries and conclude that being married has a buffering effect against socioeconomic inequalities in suicide, although there are variations according to age [18]. Following these results, our first hypothesis is (H1) being married is associated with lower suicide risk, also when taking account for educational attainment.
Following the theory regarding degree of social integration and risk of suicide, the assumption is that there is a negative relationship between educational attainment and suicide risk. Although this relationship is well investigated, the studies draw different conclusions. On the one hand, several studies do find higher suicide risk among less educated men [14,15,16,17,18,19,20], and except for two of these [17, 20], they also find a similar, but less consistent pattern for women. On the other hand, Lewis and Sloggett found no association between educational attainment and suicide risk [35]. Shah and Chatterjee [36] and Shah and Bhandarkar [37] found a curvilinear relationship between educational attainment and suicide risk, while Pompili et al. concluded with a high risk of suicide among the better educated [38]. Lusyne and Page also found higher risk of suicide among the better educated, but merely for women [34]. Most of these studies have in common the lack of control for marital status.
If in fact the better educated have a higher risk of suicide, but also a higher likelihood of getting married and thus a lower risk of suicide compared to the unmarried, we might expect to not find an association at all. It may be that these relationships cancel each other out. On the other hand, if there is an educational gradient into marriage and at the same time higher suicide risk among those with low educational attainment, this can mean accumulation of suicide risk among the less educated. Although the studies investigating educational attainment and suicide risk is somewhat inconclusive, studies regarding employment status and suicide find that unemployment is a large risk factor for suicide [39, 40]. We cannot argue that higher level of education equals employment, but it is two factors that are closely correlated. This association contributes to the expectation that higher educational attainment is associated with lower risk of suicide. Based on this, our second hypothesis is (H2) there is a negative relationship between educational attainment and suicide risk, also when marital status is accounted for.
Most children in Norway are born to married couples, although an increasing number are born to cohabitants [41]. Several studies find a substantial decrease in suicide risk among women with at least one child [33, 34, 42,43,44], but it is unclear if this also applies to men. One or more children adds another level of social integration to the marriage institution and may increase the level of social cohesiveness to the marital relationship. This can lead to an over-estimation of the effect of being married. However, the parenting bond is a social tie that is lasting, even in the case of marital disruption, and can thus be a protective factor against the elevated suicide risk of not being married. Our third hypothesis is (H3) having at least one child is associated with lower suicide risk, in addition to the relationship described in (H1). 041b061a72