WISCTV.com is reporting that the State of Wisconsin is close to passing a bill that would permit compensatory and punitive damages for violations of the Wisconsin’s state employment discrimination law:

A bill designed to stiffen penalties for employer discrimination passed the state Assembly on Wednesday, [April 29th].

The bill requires companies that discriminate against their workers to pay compensatory and punitive damages. This is a step above the current law, which lets the state order companies to rehire workers and pay back pay, along with attorney fees. This bill applies to employers who discriminate based on race, gender and other factors.

Democratic supporters say this bill punishes discrimination, while Republican critics say it will increase lawsuits and hurt businesses.The bill now goes to Gov. Jim Doyle for his signature as both the state Senate and Assembly have both approved it.

Actually, this amendment to the Wisconsin law is consistent with what happened to federal Title VII law after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (CRA of 1991). 

Under that law, Congress for the first time permitted compensatory and punitive damages for cases of intentional discrimination. However, such awards were limited by damage caps depending on the size of the employer.  Similarly, damage caps are part of the Wisconsin bill.

So, although this bill was opposed by Republicans, it really does nothing more than make Wisconsin anti-discrimination law parallel to federal law in this area.  And FWIW, the federal experience does not suggest that lawsuits have increased dramatically or businesses have been hurt for this reason. If anything, potential employment discrimination plaintiffs continue to find it difficult to access the justice system because of lack of competent counsels who understand the significant procedural and substantive difficulities in this area of the law.