Opinion ID: 492107
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer--

Text: 22 (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or 23 (2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. 24 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2(a). The language of the ADEA is nearly identical. 10 The Equal Pay Act of the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d)(1) provides: 25 No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions. 26 The statutory definition of employee under each of these Acts is virtually identical, 11 and circular in its description. Title VII defines employee as an individual employed by an employer. It defines employer as a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce who has fifteen or more employees. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e(b). The ADEA definition is identical except that it requires an employer to employ twenty or more employees. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 630(b). The definition of employer under the FLSA is equally circular:  'Employer' includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 203(d). Under each act, a person is defined to include partnerships. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 203(a); 29 U.S.C. Sec. 630(a); 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e(a). 12 27 All parties acknowledge that nothing in the legislative history of these Acts explicitly addresses the definition of employee. 13 In general, cases construing definitions of one of the Acts are to be viewed as persuasive authority when interpreting the others. See Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 98 S.Ct. 866, 55 L.Ed.2d 40 (1978); Hyland v. New Haven Radiology Assocs., 794 F.2d 793 (2nd Cir.1986). 28