Milwaukee Employment Law Blog

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision that the federal sex discrimination protections in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act extend to gay and transgender employees. The court was clear that businesses cannot discriminate against those workers in matters such as hiring, firing, pay, promotions, training, scheduling and the like.

While the court's decision was enormous, a recent survey shows that much work lies ahead in the struggle to end workplace discrimination against LGBT workers in Wisconsin.

A severe injury has taken you out of the workforce, and, now, you are worried. Your family depends on your income to keep the household running. While you have been diligent in creating an emergency fund of six months’ expenses, you prepared in another important way. You have a long-term disability insurance policy.

Even with all that planning, doubts and fears linger. And you wonder just how much money you will get through your long-term disability insurance policy. Will it be enough? How long will it last? The questions are nearly endless as you ponder the next steps, and that includes tightening your budget and a few family meetings.

Long-term disability insurance is in place to protect workers and provide the financial support they need to pay for medical costs and living expenses if unable to work due to serious ailments. A medical emergency such as heart surgery, a traumatic brain injury from an accident or long-term sickness such as cancer, asthma, multiple sclerosis and depression qualify you for long-term disability insurance.

Many scenarios exist that qualify you for obtaining long-term disability from a private insurance company. And many complicated steps take place in order to successfully obtain these benefits, which has rules governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Because of such rules, employers and insurers think they have advantages and the swift ability to deny disability insurance claims. Do not let this happen to you.

In the wake of the death of George Floyd while in police custody, protesters have for days taken to the streets of Milwaukee and other major American cities to demand an end to racial injustice. The strength in numbers and the persistence of the protesters has prompted a number of companies to declare solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and vow to improve diversity and end racial discrimination in the workplace.