Disparate impact and disparate treatment refer to discriminatory employment practices. The distinction between these two types of discriminatory practices often focuses on the employer’s intent.

Disparate impact is often referred to as unintentional discrimination and disparate treatment is often referred to as intentional discrimination. The terms adverse impact and adverse treatment are sometimes used in place of disparate impact and disparate treatment.

Disparate impact occurs when policies, practices, rules, or other processes that appear to be neutral result in a disproportionate impact on a protected group of persons.

For example, testing all applicants and using results from that test that will unintentionally eliminate certain minority applicants disproportionately is disparate impact. And testing a particular skill of only certain minority applicants is disparate treatment.

Federal laws prohibit job discrimination based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, religion, age, military status, equal pay, pregnancy, disability, or genetic information and prohibit both disparate treatment and disparate impact discrimination.


In Alabama, as in all states, employment discrimination is governed by both federal and state laws. Disparate impact refers to policies or practices that, while seemingly neutral, disproportionately affect members of a protected class, such as race or gender, without the employer intending to discriminate. For example, a cognitive ability test that inadvertently filters out a higher percentage of a particular minority group could be considered to have a disparate impact. Disparate treatment, on the other hand, involves intentional discrimination, where an employer deliberately treats employees or applicants differently based on their membership in a protected class, such as only requiring certain minority applicants to pass a specific test. Federal laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and others, prohibit both disparate impact and disparate treatment discrimination. These laws apply to various protected characteristics, including race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, age, and disability. Alabama employers must comply with these federal standards, and while Alabama does not have a comprehensive state statute that addresses employment discrimination, federal laws provide the framework for addressing claims of disparate impact and disparate treatment in the workplace.