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 per- cent 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 work- ers 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.