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 North Carolina, 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 group differently based on protected characteristics such as race, color, sex, and others. An example would be requiring only applicants of a certain race to pass a specific test. Disparate impact, on the other hand, involves employment practices that, while neutral on their face, disproportionately affect members of a protected group without a job-related necessity. An example is a standardized test that is not relevant to job performance but leads to the exclusion of a particular minority group. Federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, provide the framework for these protections and are applicable in North Carolina. These laws are enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). North Carolina also has state statutes that align with federal law to protect employees from discrimination in the workplace.