Workplace Discrimination

Conduct Screen Corporate Misconduct

Documented systemic discrimination in hiring, pay, promotion, or workplace conditions — racial discrimination, gender pay gaps, disability discrimination, anti-LGBTQ+ policies, age discrimination, and hostile work environments. Escalating threshold: one allegation is alarming and merits observation; two allegations with independent plaintiffs are potentially dispositive; three or more isolated incidents with unrelated plaintiffs showing the same fact pattern is dispositive of a systemic problem. Recency matters — companies can heal from historical discrimination if reforms are genuine and sustained. Distinct from worker_exploitation (wage/hour theft) and working_conditions (physical safety).

36 companies currently excluded under this screen

Excluded Companies (36 total)

Showing 25 of 36 companies excluded under this screen.

Ticker	Company	Reason
ERIE	ERIE INDEMNITY CO	Erie Insurance Group has faced racial discrimination allegations spanning more than two decades. Between September 1, 1998 and August 21, 2020, plaintiffs allege they experienced racial discrimination while selling insurance as agents for Erie. In 2009, Erie entered a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice prompted by allegations that the company selected insurance agents and operated its home insurance business in a manner that discriminated against African Americans in violation of the Fair Housing Act. In 2021, four administrative complaints were filed with the Maryland Insurance Administration by Baltimore-area agencies — Baltimore Insurance Network, Burley Insurance & Financial Services, Ross Insurance Agency, and Welsch Insurance Group — alleging Erie engaged in discriminatory practices against low-income and minority communities. The Maryland Insurance Administration's market conduct examination covering 2016-2020 found that Erie encouraged agents to engage in "front line underwriting," rejecting otherwise qualified applicants deemed unprofitable, with penalties including reduced commissions and termination — practices that disproportionately impacted agents serving urban areas such as Baltimore. In March 2025, Maryland regulators took formal enforcement action, imposing a $400,000 administrative penalty.
FDX	FEDEX CORP	In January 2025, the EEOC sued Federal Express Corporation for disability discrimination after FedEx denied continued telework accommodations to several disabled dispatchers at its downtown Manhattan office and demanded their immediate return to in-person work. A 30-year career dispatcher who had successfully performed her duties remotely for nearly three years (approximately April 2020 through February 2023) requested to continue teleworking as an accommodation for disabilities that substantially limited her ability to walk. FedEx denied the request based on an alleged operational need for all dispatchers in the office, failed to engage in a meaningful interactive process to explore alternative accommodations, and effectively forced at least one dispatcher into retirement. The EEOC contends FedEx violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to reasonably accommodate qualifying disabilities absent undue hardship, and separately maintained a "100% healed" policy requiring employees with disabilities to be fully recovered before returning to work — a blanket policy that violates the ADA's individualized assessment requirement.
AXP	AMERICAN EXPRESS CO	In August 2022, Brian Netzel, a former American Express client manager with over 10 years at the company, filed a class action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (Case No. 2:2022cv01423) alleging race discrimination, racial harassment, retaliation, and constructive discharge under Title VII. Netzel and subsequent plaintiffs allege American Express implemented policies to hire and maintain a percentage of Black employees comparable to the U.S. population and incentivized executives to decrease the percentage of white employees in their departments. Three additional plaintiffs joined the class action alleging that American Express subjected white employees to racially discriminatory policies that fostered a hostile work environment. The court granted American Express's motion to compel arbitration, and the case is stayed pending arbitration. Separately, a Business Insider investigation documented that senior managers at American Income Life — an American Express subsidiary — exchanged racist, sexist, and transphobic text messages between 2014 and 2019.
GEN	Genesis Healthcare, Inc.	The EEOC has sued Genesis Healthcare multiple times for disability discrimination under the ADA. In September 2020, the EEOC sued Genesis Healthcare LLC, d/b/a Mount Olive Care & Rehabilitation Center in North Carolina, for firing Margaret Washington, a cook and dietary aide hired in June 2013 who had a physical impairment limiting use of the left side of her body — despite her ability to perform her job duties. In a separate action, the EEOC sued Genesis Healthcare for refusing to hire Stefan Denisiuk, a deaf applicant, at its Holly Manor Center in New Jersey after initially offering him two part-time food service positions and then grilling him about his ability to communicate in a second interview. The DOJ also investigated Genesis Healthcare facilities for refusing admission to individuals being treated with buprenorphine or methadone for opioid use disorder — individuals who are generally considered disabled under federal civil rights laws. The pattern of disability discrimination spans hiring, firing, and patient admission across multiple states and facilities.
AKAM	AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES INC	In July 2023, Andrea Riggs filed a sex discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit against Akamai Technologies in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 1:2023cv06463). The complaint, filed by Wigdor LLP, alleges a decade-long pattern of harassment and violent behavior directed at Riggs during her tenure. She was allegedly sexually assaulted by an Akamai client in front of male colleagues, who recorded the incident and later played it back in the company's offices for the amusement of other male employees. Throughout her career at Akamai, Riggs was allegedly subjected to a barrage of sexist and sexually explicit comments from supervisors and colleagues, in addition to physical assaults. The complaint further alleges Riggs was not the only woman subjected to this treatment — other high-performing women voiced concerns about similar conduct over the years, and many left the company as a result. Akamai sought to compel arbitration but lost that bid in 2024 under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act.
AXON	Axon Enterprise, Inc.	Taser devices manufactured by Axon Enterprise are disproportionately deployed against Black individuals, who are over four times more likely to be subjected to Taser use than white individuals. When Taser encounters turn fatal, Black people comprise 32% of deaths despite being 14% of the US population. Research from Keele University, UCL, and the University of Exeter (2023) found structural racism drives this disparity — policing concentrates in deprived areas where Black and ethnic minority populations disproportionately live. The ACLU has documented cases of Taser use on compliant Black individuals. Multiple DOJ consent decrees (Ferguson, Seattle, others) have found patterns of racially biased force, with Tasers as a primary tool. While Axon does not directly control deployment, it manufactures and aggressively markets the weapon that serves as the primary instrument of racially disparate use of force across US law enforcement. ICE purchased $2.6 million in Axon Tasers (2020-2021) and used them during deportation flights.
HSIC	HENRY SCHEIN INC	Henry Schein, Inc., one of America's largest healthcare product distributors, has faced multiple employment discrimination lawsuits spanning different protected classes and jurisdictions. In 2008, James Rogers filed a civil action (Case No. 08-2497, S.D. W.Va.) alleging sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, libel, slander, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In 2021, a lawsuit filed in Alameda County, California Superior Court alleged wrongful termination and retaliation after an employee reported that a top-earning Henry Schein sales representative repeatedly referred to the employee's Asian American wife — a well-known dentist and Henry Schein customer — as "sushi." The complaint alleged the offensive sales representative was not only allowed to continue working but was permitted to wage a campaign of false statements against the reporting employee, who was ultimately forced to resign. The cases span gender-based harassment and racial discrimination with retaliation, separated by over a decade.
EQR	EQUITY RESIDENTIAL	Equity Residential Properties settled with the DOJ for $770,000 in 2012 over allegations of discriminating against families with children by imposing restrictive lease terms at Chicago-area properties, violating the Fair Housing Act's familial status protections. The familial status case is part of a broader pattern of housing discrimination enforcement actions against the company. In January 2016, Equity Residential settled with the Equal Rights Center, agreeing to survey and remediate accessibility deficiencies across 85 residential properties nationwide. In January 2017, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a separate complaint (United States v. Equity Residential, S.D.N.Y.) alleging the company violated the Fair Housing Act by failing to design and construct 170 Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan to be accessible to persons with disabilities. The pattern spans familial status and disability discrimination across multiple properties, jurisdictions, and time periods.
WYNN	Wynn Resorts, Limited	Wynn Resorts carries $55 million in employment discrimination penalties across two separate findings — $35 million assessed by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in 2019 and $20 million assessed by the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 2019 — both arising from investigations into the company's workplace culture following the resignation of founder Steve Wynn amid allegations of pervasive sexual misconduct toward employees over several decades. These are two independent regulatory findings from two separate state jurisdictions, covering the Nevada and Massachusetts operations respectively, and both reached dispositive conclusions within the same calendar year. The EEOC separately sued Wynn Las Vegas in 2016 for refusing to accommodate a disabled veteran employee with PTSD who had requested a modified schedule and was subsequently suspended after filing a discrimination complaint. Violation Tracker records 17 employment-related offense records against Wynn Resorts totaling $61.4 million.
IEX	IDEX CORP	IDEX Corporation, a Lake Forest, Illinois-based manufacturer and supplier of fluidics systems, paid $380,000 in April 2017 to settle an EEOC disability discrimination lawsuit. A Miami-based IDEX regional manager who had successfully performed his job was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. He continued to perform well while undergoing treatment, but supervisors repeatedly asked invasive questions about his illness and questioned his ability to perform. On December 8, 2011, IDEX fired him because of his disability. Beyond the monetary settlement, the consent decree required IDEX to train all U.S.-based human resources managers on the ADA's prohibition against disability discrimination, with those HR managers then training all U.S.-based managers. IDEX was also required to post and distribute notices about the decree via email, its website, and at locations nationwide, and to make periodic reports to the EEOC on involuntary separations and medical/health-related accommodations.
ESS	ESSEX PROPERTY TRUST INC	Essex Property Trust, one of the nation's largest apartment REITs, faces litigation for source-of-income discrimination against Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher holders in violation of California and other state fair housing laws. In November 2024, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that Essex refused to allow a Long Beach tenant to renew her lease using her Section 8 voucher. An investigation by Capital & Main and Stocktonia News found that four of nine Essex leasing agents contacted by testers said they would reject Section 8 applicants who did not pass credit checks — using credit history as a proxy to screen out voucher holders despite California's explicit prohibition on source-of-income discrimination. The pattern — a corporate-level practice, not an isolated agent decision — suggests systemic noncompliance with fair housing obligations across Essex's California portfolio.
HCA	HCA HEALTHCARE INC	HCA Healthcare agreed to pay $4.6 million to resolve an EEOC disability discrimination lawsuit alleging it failed to accommodate employees with disabilities, as documented by ViolationTracker. That disability settlement is part of a broader pattern: in July 2023, the EEOC filed a separate lawsuit against HCA Healthcare, Inc. and two of its divisions — Tennessee Healthcare Management, Inc. and GME Overhead — for race, national origin, and age discrimination and retaliation, alleging the company refused to promote an employee because of his age, race, and national origin. HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital operator in the United States with over 2,300 healthcare facilities, has thus faced EEOC enforcement actions spanning disability, race, national origin, and age discrimination — multiple independent actions across different protected classes, indicating systemic employment practices issues rather than isolated incidents.
GL	Globe Life	Globe Life disclosed in a September 2024 regulatory filing that the EEOC found "reasonable cause" to believe the company discriminated against six of its sales agents — five former and one current — on the basis of sex, and that one agent was also discriminated against on the basis of race. The EEOC indicated it may file suit. The formal EEOC findings sit atop a broader pattern documented by Business Insider, whose investigation obtained screenshots showing senior managers at American Income Life (AIL), a Globe Life subsidiary, exchanging racist, sexist, and transphobic text messages between 2014 and 2019. One former AIL vice president sent a meme depicting a Black man; other messages included the n-word. The investigation documented evidence of racism from Globe's Texas headquarters to its agencies nationwide. Globe Life stated it intends to vigorously defend against any EEOC lawsuit and has policies prohibiting discrimination.
NTRS	NORTHERN TRUST CORP	Northern Trust agreed to pay $29 million to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging widespread age discrimination against a class of older workers in its wealth management business, as documented by ViolationTracker. The settlement is one of the largest EEOC age discrimination resolutions on record. Northern Trust, a Chicago-based financial holding company managing over $1 trillion in assets, has also faced separate allegations of age-discriminatory pension plan amendments. In Teufel v. Northern Trust Company (7th Cir. 2018), older employees challenged changes to the company's defined benefit plan formula as violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, though the Seventh Circuit ultimately ruled the plan change did not violate ERISA or the ADEA. The $29 million employment discrimination settlement and the pension litigation together suggest a pattern of policies with disproportionate adverse impact on older workers.
DVA	DAVITA INC	The EEOC sued DaVita Inc. in 2020 for allegedly refusing to hire a qualified applicant because of her disability, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. A separate federal court ruling found DaVita discriminated against a patient care technician, Sharon Duncan, who developed sensitivity to a glycol acetic acid mixture used in kidney dialysis — the court held that mixing the acid was a marginal task the company could have excused, not an essential function of her role. DaVita's legal exposure extends well beyond disability discrimination: the company has accumulated over $104 million in penalties across 18 enforcement records documented by ViolationTracker, including a $389 million False Claims Act whistleblower settlement for alleged kickback schemes paying doctors for patient referrals, and a criminal conspiracy indictment of its former CEO Kent Thiry for no-poach hiring agreements with competitors.
BALL	BALL CORP	Ball Container LLC, a subsidiary of Ball Corporation, entered a conciliation agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in October 2024 to pay $309,000 in back wages and interest for race-based hiring discrimination at its beverage manufacturing facility in Rome, Georgia. The OFCCP's compliance review found that between February 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021, Ball Container discriminated against 192 Black applicants for production technician positions — a systematic failure to hire qualified Black candidates at a single facility over a one-year period. The conduct violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race. In addition to back pay, Ball Container agreed to extend four job offers to eligible class members when positions become available.
JLL	JONES LANG LASALLE INC	Jones Lang LaSalle has a documented pattern of discrimination and regulatory non-compliance across multiple jurisdictions. In 2018 JLL paid $82,500 to settle an EEOC disability discrimination lawsuit after rescinding a job offer to an applicant who disclosed PTSD and requested to work remotely once per week for medical appointments, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. ViolationTracker records $545,507 in total penalties across 27 enforcement actions since 2000, spanning OSHA workplace safety violations (2009-2023) and other regulatory domains. In October 2024 Canada's FINTRAC fined JLL Real Estate Services $107,828 for anti-money laundering compliance failures including incomplete risk assessments, failure to maintain client identification records in 40 instances, and failure to conduct the required two-year effectiveness review of its AML policies.
BBY	Best Buy Co., Inc.	Best Buy has a multi-decade record of employment discrimination enforcement actions documented by ViolationTracker. The EEOC found probable cause that between 2003 and 2010, Best Buy's use of personality tests and assessments during the application process adversely impacted applicants based on race and national origin. In June 2011, Best Buy settled a class action on behalf of women and minority employees, agreeing to policy changes to enhance equal employment opportunities for thousands of women, African Americans, and Latinos nationwide. Separately, Best Buy agreed to pay $225,000 to settle an EEOC age discrimination charge alleging the company denied reemployment to older workers. The pattern spans race, national origin, gender, and age — multiple independent enforcement actions across different protected classes over more than a decade.
SG	SWEETGREEN INC	Sweetgreen faces a systemic race and sex discrimination lawsuit filed by ten employees across seven New York City locations (Alvarado et al. v. Sweetgreen, Case No. 804089/2023E, Bronx County Supreme Court). The complaint alleges that managers regularly used the N-word toward Black employees, that a supervisor rejected a Black female applicant because she "looked like she had an attitude problem," and that Hispanic workers received promotions, favorable shifts, and early departures over more qualified Black colleagues. The lawsuit also alleges sexual harassment of female employees by managers, including unwanted physical contact and sexual comments. Workers reported complaints to corporate leadership that went unaddressed. The case was filed in March 2023 and amended in September 2023 to add additional plaintiffs and defendants.
PHM	PULTEGROUP INC	PulteGroup faces multiple active lawsuits alleging systemic racial discrimination against Black employees, with plaintiffs citing unequal pay and promotion opportunities, hostile work environment conditions, and at least one incident in which a company executive allegedly displayed a noose during a work meeting. The suits allege violations of Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and describe the incidents not as isolated occurrences but as evidence of a company-wide pattern. PulteGroup denies the allegations and points to the formation of a Diversity Board in 2020 as evidence of corrective intent, but plaintiffs contend the board's actions have not addressed the underlying discriminatory practices. Violation Tracker records 3 employment-related offense records against PulteGroup totaling $536,420.
TKO	TKO GROUP HOLDINGS INC	TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of UFC and WWE, faces significant workplace misconduct concerns. Executive Chairman Vince McMahon resigned in January 2024 following a sex trafficking and sexual assault lawsuit filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant. A prior internal investigation identified approximately $20 million in nondisclosure agreements between McMahon and multiple female WWE employees. McMahon reached a settlement with the SEC in 2025 regarding payments to two women. TKO recorded $401 million in litigation costs for fiscal year 2024. Separately, UFC agreed to pay $335 million to settle a class-action antitrust lawsuit brought by fighters alleging the organization used monopoly power to suppress fighter pay and enforce restrictive contracts.
COIN	Coinbase Global, Inc.	A November 2020 New York Times investigation (based on 23 current and former employees) found Black employees were paid 7% less than peers in comparable roles (11% less including stock options), and women were paid 8% less than men. 75% of Black employees left, quit, or were fired in 2018-2019. Reports included jokes about Black stereotypes, being passed over for promotions, and complaints being ignored. In September 2020, CEO Brian Armstrong published a memo declaring Coinbase "apolitical" and banning discussion of social justice issues — directly after a June 2020 employee walkout demanding the company support Black Lives Matter. He offered severance to anyone who disagreed; 60+ employees (5% of workforce) took it.
TSLA	Tesla	Tesla is currently in private mediation with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as of January 2026 to resolve a landmark 2023 lawsuit. The EEOC alleged a "pervasive" pattern of racial harassment and retaliation against Black workers at the Fremont plant, including the open use of slurs and racist graffiti that the company failed to address. This follows the high-profile Owen Diaz case, where a federal jury reaffirmed findings of a racially hostile work environment, leading to a multi-million dollar settlement in March 2024.
WBD	WARNER BROS DISCOVERY INC	WBD faces cluster of discrimination claims. Willis v. WBD (Dec 2025, LA Superior Court): former cybersecurity executive alleging wrongful termination after medical leave for spinal injury, age discrimination, failure to provide reasonable accommodations. Oct 2025: 9th Circuit ruled on white camera operator's racial discrimination lawsuit — while WBD escaped on summary judgment, internal DEI commitments highlighted as legal friction point. Ongoing EEOC investigations identify WBD production sets as high-risk for harassment.
ARES	Ares Management	Ares/Pretium's HavenBrook Homes filed 500+ evictions in the first 10 weeks of 2021, with a documented 4x racial disparity: ~20% of tenants in majority-Black DeKalb and Clayton Counties (GA) were served eviction filings vs ~5% in majority-white Polk County (FL). Evictions proceeded during the CDC pandemic moratorium. Named tenant Katrina Chism, a single mother who lost her job during COVID, filed a CDC hardship declaration and was still evicted. Ares stated it "does not collect racial composition data."

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