Employers are generally allowed to enforce dress and appearance standards so long as they do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, and so on. Gender-specific rules are acceptable if based on social norms, unless they place an unfair burden on one sex. So, for example, having a “business dress” rule that requires men to wear ties and women to wear dresses or skirts would be legal, but requiring only one sex to wear a uniform would not. What problems can you identify with any of the following?

(a) A pizza company will make no exceptions to its rule that drivers must be clean shaven. Sixty percent of African-American men have a skin condition characterized by severely painful shaving bumps. The condition is cured by growing a beard.

(b) UPS prohibits its workers from wearing dreadlocks.

(c) Bank does not allow male employees to wear earrings.

(d) Casino hires men and women as cocktail waiters. Women are required to wear three-inch high heels; men are allowed to wear any “dress shoe.”

(e) Imperial Palace hires only slim, young women and requires them to wear geisha-girl costumes to serve cocktails. But some of the waitresses have complained that the costumes are sexually provocative to customers and invite unwanted attention.