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 Rhode Island, as in other states, employment discrimination laws prohibit both disparate treatment and disparate impact. Disparate treatment refers to intentional discrimination where an employer treats an individual or a group of individuals differently based on their protected characteristics, such as race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, religion, age, military status, equal pay, pregnancy, disability, or genetic information. Disparate impact, on the other hand, occurs when an employer's neutral policy or practice disproportionately affects members of a protected group, even if there was no intent to discriminate. Both types of discrimination are illegal under federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). Rhode Island also has state laws that mirror these protections, such as the Rhode Island Fair Employment Practices Act, which further enforce these principles and provide mechanisms for individuals to file complaints if they believe they have been subjected to employment discrimination.