Retail stores account for a massive portion of the U.S. economy. Approximately two-thirds of the U.S. gross domestic product comes from retail sales. Retail employees are a crucial component of our modern lives, however, working conditions in the retail industry are often unsatisfactory and sometimes intolerable. Sexual harassment is prevalent throughout the retail industry. Sadly, some retail workers tolerate demeaning conduct at work because they are financially dependent on the job and do not know their legal options.  

Sexual Harassment in the Retail Industry

Just over 13 percent of sexual harassment claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) between 2005 and 2010 involved retail workers. Grocery stores, clothing stores, shops, appliance stores, gas stations, and other retail stores are rife with sexual harassment. Sometimes, sexual harassment takes place in the form of co-worker misconduct. A hostile workplace is created when offensive, sexually explicit, or demeaning statements or behavior become so frequent or severe that they prevent workers from completing job duties. Hostile work environment sexual harassment may involve:

• Displaying pornographic pictures or videos at work
• Making comments about another worker’s body
• Joking about sexually explicit topics
• Rude comments or offensive generalizations about a gender
• Slurs and hateful language
• Unwanted sexual contact
• Constantly asking a co-worker out on dates

Sexual harassment in retail stores may also involve superiors trying to exploit positions of authority to gain sexual favors. For example, a manager may imply or outright state that a worker will gain a favorable work schedule if he or she consents to romantic or sexual conduct. This is called “quid pro quo” sexual harassment. Both hostile work environment sexual harassment and quid pro quo harassment are prohibited by federal and state laws.

Many people underestimate just how involved the divorce process can be. Ending a marriage is not only deciding to divorce and filing the petition for dissolution. To divorce, the couple must also address divorce issues like the division of marital property and debts, allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time, and spousal maintenance. Reaching an out-of-court agreement on these issues instead of letting the court determine the unresolved issues can save a tremendous amount of time, money, and stress. If you are getting divorced, consider the following alternatives to litigation.

Reaching an Agreement Through Your Attorneys

Understandably, many divorcing spouses struggle to see eye to eye regarding the terms of their divorce. If you and your spouse disagree about divorce issues like who should keep the family home or which parent should have the majority of parenting time, consider reaching out to an attorney for help. Your lawyer can act as an intermediary between you and your spouse and represent you during negotiations. This ensures that you have a knowledgeable legal advocate on your side, helping you reach the best divorce outcome possible.

Resolving Your Disagreements Through Mediation

During family law mediation, a divorcing couple meets with a mediator to discuss the unresolved issues in hopes of coming to a mutually agreeable solution. The mediator’s job is to facilitate productive conversations and steer the discussions away from accusations, blame, or irrelevant concerns. The mediator does not make a decision for you or tell you how to resolve the divorce but instead helps you reach your own decisions. Mediation can be a useful tool, but mediation alone may be insufficient for cases involving complex financial concerns or significant contentiousness.

Money problems are a known initiator of countless divorces in the U.S. However, affluence does not prevent a marriage from breaking down. In a divorce case, the complexity of the divorce proceedings is influenced heavily by the spouses’ financial situation. The higher a couple’s net worth, the greater the financial impact of property division, spousal support, and child support determinations. If you are thinking about divorce and you or your spouse have a high income or own high-value assets, it is important to consider how the wealth may impact the divorce.

The Division of Assets and Debts

Most couples reach an out-of-court property division settlement during their divorce. However, before couples can agree on who gets what, the property must be accurately valued and identified. Complex assets like stocks, stock options, business interests, and other assets with fluctuating or difficult-to-calculate values must be analyzed and valued before they can be properly addressed during property division negotiations.

To divide assets in a divorce, assets must be identified as either marital, meaning they belong to both spouses, or non-marital, meaning they belong to only one spouse. Some assets, like retirement accounts, may be partially marital property and partially non-marital property. Furthermore, there may be important tax consequences to the decisions made during the property division process. A divorce attorney experienced in high net worth divorce cases may work alongside appraisers, accountants, tax professionals, and other financial experts during property division.

Over the last several years, more than a few prominent members of the media have been accused of mistreating staff or even creating a hostile work environment. Since NBC’s Matt Lauer was terminated from his position in 2017, there have been accusations against other news anchors, hosts, producers, directors, and television personalities. Unfortunately, being in the public eye does not prevent someone from becoming a victim of workplace sexual harassment.

ABC News Faces Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Sexual harassment is a form of sex-based discrimination that is prohibited by state and federal law, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Employers have a legal obligation to respond to accusations of sexual harassment promptly and effectively. When employers do not take appropriate corrective action after a sexual harassment complaint, the harassment or discrimination victim may bring a lawsuit against the company.

A top ABC producer has taken legal action against the broadcasting company after she says she was subjected to sexual assault and ongoing harassment at work. Kirstyn Crawford says that she is not the only one who was assaulted by a senior executive producer. Crawford alleges that the executive producer created a toxic work environment characterized by verbal and physical harassment and intimidation, bullying, and pressuring others to binge drink. ABC is being accused of ignoring this behavior and “looking the other way” while the executive producer mistreated other staff.

If you are an unmarried parent or you plan to divorce, you may have questions and concerns about child custody. In Illinois, the term “child custody” is still used informally, but the state does not officially use the terms custody and visitation when referring to parenting duties. Instead, parenting duties are divided into parental responsibilities, meaning a parent’s authority to make decisions about the child’s schooling, healthcare, and other important matters, and parenting time, or the physical time a child spends with each parent.

If you wish to obtain all of the parental responsibilities or parenting time, it is important to understand the circumstances under which Illinois grants sole custody.

Illinois Law Presumes a Child Should Spend Time with Both Parents

The legal presumption in all child custody cases is that the child is best served by having both of his or her parents involved in his or her life. Even if one parent is granted all of the parental responsibilities, the other parent typically still has the right to parenting time.