Executive Summary: Employers want to hire the best candidates for their job. However, in utilizing certain hiring standards, employers may be having a “disparate impact” that inadvertently discriminates against certain protected groups. The Connecticut General Assembly is presently considering a law that would allow women to be exempt from the Candidate Physical Ability Test, the standard used by fire departments across the country. The test, which only approximately 15 percent of women pass, requires candidates to complete intense physical tasks while wearing a 50-pound vest. It is designed to simulate the experience of navigating a fire in heavy gear and identify whether a candidate is capable of performing the essential job functions. The General Assembly is considering an alternative test based on “revised physical standards” to allow for “additional female candidates” to qualify for firefighter positions.

Some firefighters, including women, say the bill will be the demise of merit-based hiring and could potentially endanger Connecticut residents. Beyond potentially putting lives at risk, opponents of the bill suggest that the law will exacerbate suspicions common among male firefighters that women are not up for the job. By lowering the hiring standards, people may think that a woman was hired because of her gender and not her abilities.

This is not the first merit-based dispute between firefighters and the Connecticut government. In 2003, the New Haven fire...

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