Is a dropouts need not apply policy acceptable?

Q We are a local county government, and we require that all job applicants have a high-school diploma. Is there a reason not to have a minimum education requirement? For example, would we be in trouble for requesting that drivers or custodians meet a certain education level?

While I have no doubt that your intentions are innocent, the courts are familiar with employers that implement seemingly innocuous job requirements as a way to promote insidious discrimination. In the early days of the civil rights movement, many employers used the highschool diploma requirement as a way to weed out applicants who, because of their race, ethnicity, or national origin, were statistically less likely to have a diploma. The rulings that came out of those cases consistently warned employers that if a job posting carried an educational requirement, they should be prepared to demonstrate that it was reasonably related to the skills necessary to perform the specific job they were advertising. So, unless you can show how a high-school education relates to the job tasks at hand, I wouldnt recommend requiring that applicants for entry-level positions like the ones you mention have a high-school diploma.

Eric Loman is an attorney with Jackson Loman Stanford & Downey, P.C., in Albuquerque, New Mexico. You can reach him at eric@jacksonlomanlaw.com.