Civil Rights Act of 1991

The CRA of 1991 was enacted as an amendment designed to correct a few major omissions of the 1964 CRA as well as to overturn several US Court decisions. One of the major changes in the amendment was the addition of compensatory and punitive damages in cases of intentional discrimination under Title VII and the ADA, when intentional or reckless discrimination is proven.

Compensatory damages are monetary damages awarded by the court that compensate the injured person for losses. Such losses can include future pecuniary loss (potential future monetary losses like loss of earnings capacity), emotional pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.

Punitive damages are monetary damages awarded by the court that are designed to punish an injuring party that has intentionally inflicted harm on others. They are meant to discourage employers from intentionally discriminating, and they do this by providing for payments to the plaintiff beyond the actual damages suffered.

Recognizing that one or a few discrimination cases could put an organization out of business, adversely affecting many innocent employees, the CRA of 1991 provides for a sliding scale of upper limits or “caps” on the combined amount of compensatory and punitive damages based on the number of employees employed by the employer.

Another major area in which the 1991 Act changed the original CRA is in the application of quotas for protected group members. Many companies, after the 1964 CRA, created and used quotas for hiring and promotion. The quotas were made explicitly illegal by the 1991 act. In addition, the act prohibits “discriminatory use” of test scores, which is commonly called race norming.

Race norming exists when different groups of people have different scores designated as “passing” grades on a test for employment. One group may have higher requirements for passing grades while another is allowed to pass at a lower level.

The 1991 act basically equated this with quotas and, as such, made it illegal.