20 Workplace Rules Folks Debated in the 70s

Not subtly different. Completely different.

The workplace was a place where a lot of things that would be illegal today were just… normal.

Some people fought to change them.

Some people fought to keep them.

The fights that happened in those years shaped every job you have had since.

This list is about those fights.

1. Should Women Be Allowed to Work While Pregnant?

In the early 1970s, many employers could legally fire a woman for being pregnant.

It was not just common. It was expected in many industries.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was not passed until 1978, after years of heated debate.

Before that, women lost their jobs, their seniority, and their income simply for starting a family.

Some companies had written policies requiring women to leave work by a certain month of pregnancy.

The fight to change this took more than a decade.

2. Should Men and Women Earn the Same Pay?

The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, but enforcement in the 70s was still weak.

Many employers found ways around it by giving jobs different titles for men and women.

In 1970, women earned on average about 59 cents for every dollar men earned.

The debate in the 70s was not just about fairness. It was about whether women deserved equal pay at all.

Some argued women worked less or were less committed. The data disagreed.

That’s why the pay gap debate became one of the defining workplace arguments of the decade.

3. Should Employees Have the Right to a Safe Workplace?

Before the 1970s, workplace safety was largely up to each employer.

Injuries, chemical exposure, and dangerous conditions were common and rarely punished.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was signed into law in 1970, creating the first federal safety standards.

Many business owners fought hard against it, calling it government overreach.

Workers fought just as hard for it, after watching colleagues die from preventable accidents.

The debate over how much the government should regulate workplace safety raged throughout the decade.

4. Should Employees Be Allowed to Strike?

Labor strikes were a major part of 1970s America.

The decade saw strikes by teachers, postal workers, miners, and factory workers.

In 1970 alone, there were more than 5,700 work stoppages involving 3.3 million workers in the U.S.

The debate was fierce: did workers have the right to shut down a business to demand better conditions?

Employers said no. Unions said absolutely yes.

The tension between these two sides shaped labor law for decades to come.

5. Should Women Be Allowed in Traditionally Male Jobs?

The 1970s saw women entering trades, factories, and fields that had been all-male for generations.

Not everyone welcomed the change.

Title IX passed in 1972, banning sex discrimination in education, which opened more career paths for women.

But here’s the catch: getting the law changed and changing the culture were two very different things.

Women in construction, mining, and policing often faced hostility, harassment, and sabotage.

The debate about whether they belonged there was loud and often ugly.

6. Should Employers Be Able to Discriminate Based on Age?

Age discrimination in hiring and firing was widespread in the 1970s.

Workers over 40 were often the first to be let go when companies cut costs.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 was extended in 1978 to protect workers up to age 70.

The debate in the 70s centered on whether older workers were less productive or too expensive to keep.

Many companies argued they had the right to manage their workforce as they saw fit.

Workers argued they deserved protection for the years they had invested.

7. Should There Be Limits on How Many Hours an Employee Could Work?

Overtime and long hours were a constant point of tension in 1970s workplaces.

Many workers, especially in manufacturing and agriculture, worked long weeks with little extra pay.

The Fair Labor Standards Act set a 40-hour workweek, but enforcement was uneven and many workers were excluded.

Employers argued flexibility was essential for business. Workers argued they were being exploited.

Farm workers, domestic workers, and others were often left out of protections entirely.

That’s why the debate about hours and overtime was never just about time. It was about fairness.

8. Should Employers Be Required to Accommodate Disabled Workers?

Before the 1970s, workers with disabilities had almost no workplace protections.

Many could be legally refused a job or fired for having a physical or mental condition.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first federal law to address disability discrimination in the workplace.

But it only applied to federal contractors and agencies. The broader debate about private employers took years more.

Many business owners argued accommodations were too expensive. Advocates argued exclusion was too costly for society.

This debate eventually led to the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

9. Should Employees Have Privacy Rights at Work?

Workplace privacy was a surprisingly heated topic in the 1970s.

Employers monitored workers, searched their belongings, and listened to phone calls — often with no warning.

Courts in the 70s began debating whether employees had any reasonable expectation of privacy on the job.

Employers argued they owned the workplace and had the right to know what happened in it.

Workers argued they did not surrender all their rights when they walked through the door.

The issue got more complicated as technology advanced.

10. Should Dress Codes Be Enforced?

Dress codes in the 1970s were a battleground between traditional employers and a changing culture.

Long hair, casual clothes, and personal expression clashed with strict corporate dress policies.

Courts began ruling in the 70s that some dress codes could cross the line into discrimination based on sex or race.

Many companies required women to wear skirts and men to have short hair.

Workers pushed back, arguing their appearance had nothing to do with their performance.

But here’s the deal: many employers held firm, and enforcement was rarely consistent.

11. Should Unions Have More Power Than Management?

Union power was at its peak in the early 1970s, and the tension with management was intense.

Collective bargaining agreements covered a huge share of the American workforce.

In 1970, about 27% of U.S. workers were union members, compared to roughly 10% today.

Business leaders argued unions were strangling productivity and driving up costs.

Workers argued unions were the only thing standing between them and exploitation.

The debate shaped industries from steel and auto to education and government.

12. Should Employees Be Able to Report Wrongdoing Without Being Fired?

Whistleblowing was a dangerous act in the 1970s.

Workers who reported illegal or unsafe practices often lost their jobs, their reputations, and sometimes more.

The first major federal whistleblower protection law was part of the Clean Air Act of 1970, covering environmental violations.

But broader protections for workers in other industries took years to develop.

The debate was simple on paper: should people who do the right thing be punished for it?

In practice, the answer in many 70s workplaces was yes.

13. Should Employers Be Allowed to Ask About Personal Life in Interviews?

Job interviews in the 1970s could get very personal, very fast.

Employers routinely asked women about their marital status, whether they planned to have children, and their husband’s opinion of them working.

Many of these questions became illegal under Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines, but enforcement was slow.

Debate raged over whether these questions were legitimate business concerns or outright discrimination.

Employers argued they needed to know who would stay long-term. Applicants argued the questions were nobody’s business.

Changing the culture took far longer than changing the law.

14. Should There Be Affirmative Action in Hiring?

Affirmative action was one of the most explosive workplace debates of the 1970s.

Executive Order 11246, signed in 1965, required federal contractors to take active steps to hire minorities and women.

The debate intensified in 1978 when the Supreme Court addressed affirmative action in the Bakke case.

Supporters argued it was necessary to correct decades of discrimination.

Critics argued it was reverse discrimination and violated principles of merit.

Neither side has ever fully won the argument.

15. Should There Be a Mandatory Retirement Age?

Mandatory retirement was a standard practice in most American companies in the early 1970s.

Workers were forced out at 65, regardless of their health, skills, or desire to continue working.

The debate shifted when Congress raised the mandatory retirement age to 70 in 1978, and eventually eliminated it in most jobs in 1986.

Supporters of forced retirement argued it opened jobs for younger workers.

Opponents argued it stripped dignity from people who still had plenty to offer.

The 70s were when that argument finally started turning.

16. Should Employees Get Paid Parental Leave?

Paid parental leave was almost unheard of in 1970s American workplaces.

Most women who had children were expected to quit or take unpaid time off.

The U.S. still has no federal paid parental leave law, and the debate about it started in earnest in the 1970s.

European countries were already developing paid leave policies, which added fuel to the American debate.

Employers argued it was too costly. Advocates argued it was basic human decency.

The argument did not get resolved. It just got louder.

17. Should Employees Be Told Why They Were Fired?

“At-will employment” meant most American workers could be fired for any reason, or no reason at all.

In the 1970s, workers began pushing back against this system.

Some states began recognizing “wrongful termination” claims in the 70s, creating early exceptions to at-will rules.

The debate centered on a basic question: do employees have any right to know why they lost their job?

Employers argued requiring reasons would make it harder to run a business.

Workers argued silence was just a way to hide discrimination.

18. Should the Workplace Be Free from Sexual Harassment?

Sexual harassment in the workplace was rarely named as a legal issue until the 1970s.

Before that, unwanted advances, comments, and worse were simply accepted as part of work life.

The term “sexual harassment” was first coined by activists at Cornell University in 1975.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission began developing guidelines on the issue later in the decade.

Many employers dismissed the debate as overblown or unnecessary.

Workers, mostly women, knew exactly how serious it was.

19. Should Employees Be Forced to Join a Union?

The “closed shop” — where union membership was required to get a job — was a major controversy in the 70s.

Some workers valued the protection. Others resented being forced to join and pay dues.

By 1970, 21 states had passed “right to work” laws that banned mandatory union membership.

The debate pitted individual choice against collective power.

Unions argued mandatory membership kept everyone stronger. Opponents called it forced association.

The argument is still playing out in statehouses across America today.

20. Should Employers Provide Health Insurance?

Employer-provided health insurance became a major workplace debate in the 1970s.

Many employers offered it as a benefit, but coverage varied wildly and millions of workers had none.

In 1974, Congress passed ERISA, setting standards for employer benefit plans for the first time.

The bigger debate — whether health care was a right or a benefit — was just getting started.

Workers who lost their jobs also lost their coverage. That felt wrong to many people.

The debate about employer-sponsored health care has never really stopped since the 70s.