Would a Christian Discount be Discriminatory?

[Edward]

I'm self employed, and was considering creating a Christian discount to customers. I wondered if I may be setting myself up for grief or trouble by doing so. This is not something that I would necessarily advertise, but rather upon entering a customers home, if I seen evidence of God in the home such as a Bible laying out, or a picture of Christ on the wall, or hearing something they say indicating a faith in God, to declare the discount and cut them a break, based on the evidence of Christ in the home. Just a way to extend kindness to Gods people.

But knowing the litigious nature of people nowadays, I have to wonder if this could bring me trouble or be considered discriminatory to attempt such a thing.

What do you think?

 

[reba]

I believe it is sad that the question would even be asked.... You should be able to discount any one for any reason you wish....I think it is a wonderful idea...

 

[Nick]

Touchy. On one had I think it's an awesome idea. On the other, if others find out, it may give you some grief. I don't know about the US, but in Australia it's probably illegal to discount a customer based on religious affiliation. Probably.

 

[Nick]

BTW what's your business?

 

[Knotical]

Of course it is discrimination, just not unfair discrimination. There is a big difference. As long as you are not advertising it I do not see a problem. Also, you could name the discount something benign so as not to raise suspicion if you are truly worried about a potential backlash. But as reba pointed out, you should be able to offer a discount to anyone you want to, just as long as you are offering to everyone that fits within the group you are designating.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I'm self employed, and was considering creating a Christian discount to customers. I wondered if I may be setting myself up for grief or trouble by doing so. This is not something that I would necessarily advertise, but rather upon entering a customers home, if I seen evidence of God in the home such as a Bible laying out, or a picture of Christ on the wall, or hearing something they say indicating a faith in God, to declare the discount and cut them a break, based on the evidence of Christ in the home. Just a way to extend kindness to Gods people.

But knowing the litigious nature of people nowadays, I have to wonder if this could bring me trouble or be considered discriminatory to attempt such a thing.

What do you think?

We give senior discounts, student discounts, military discounts, first responder discounts -- why not Christian discounts?

 

[Edward]

Thanks for kind words. I think perhaps it might be a good idea to not write it on the invoice as a Christian discount to be on the safe side. I'll just tell them what it is and that God loves them.

I am a Mechanical Contractor and do Heating and Air Conditioning. Along with Plumbing repair and gas lines.

 

[Edward]

you could name the discount something benign so as not to raise suspicion

Quite often when I work for customers, I'll leave them 3 business cards and ask them to refer friends and neighbors if they're happy with my work. So sometimes I go back to the same street as I worked recently, especially when I install someone a new furnace and they show it off to their neighbors. But if I give the one guy a Christian discount and his neighbor's house is full of witchcraft paraphernalia...they could get mad that they didn't get the discount that the neighbor did. What would be a good benign sounding discount name to call it that would be very vague and open to interpretation that would be legally up to the judgment of the technician and not able to be pinned down to a forced discount to anyone...if it ever made it to court?

 

[GKC]

Generally speaking, what is governed by federal law and deemed actionable is discrimination in housing, employment, and employment practices (such as pay, benefits, schedules, types of assignments, breaks, training, promotions, etc.) The protected categories are race, gender, age, pregnancy, religion, national origin, disability, or genetic information. Even though religion is a protected class, this is not applicable in what you propose. (I'm not an attorney, but I spent the majority of my career working in HR.) The EEOC does not govern small employers who have less than 15 employees, and what you are proposing is not an employment practice. Of course, actionable discrimination can be considered for other issues than employment...public businesses, like a restaurant for example, can't say "we won't serve blacks" or hotels can't say "we won't rent a room to a Arab." Businesses can (and do) give discounts to seniors, veterans, etc. Your intent to give a discount to Christians is not discriminatory, since you are not discriminating AGAINST a protected class.

There have been examples of small businesses that have refused to service or sell to certain groups...for example, recently there was a gun shop that got some publicity for stating and advertising that it would not sell a gun to anyone who voted for Obama. Political affiliation is not a protected class, and the gun shop was not sufficiently large to come under EEOC regulation, so unless there is some state or local law preventing a small business owner from determining how he wants to conduct his business, it is not technically or legally discrimination, and the business owner is well within his rights under current law to do as he was doing.

As an individual contractor, you should be free to set your prices, unless some local or state regulation governs what you can charge (doubtful.) I don't think you will have any problem as long as you state a price up front that applies to everyone equally, and then reduce it for certain customers to whom you wish to give a discount, such as Christians or veterans, etc.

 

[Edward]

That's good stuff to know Ken, Thanks.

 

[P31Woman]

Hey Edward,

Is your business making enough profit to give a discount? Our businesses are suffering and that hits our Church as well. Your business must not be related to new construction.

 

[Edward]

Hey Edward,

Is your business making enough profit to give a discount? Our businesses are suffering and that hits our Church as well. Your business must not be related to new construction.

No, my business doesn't make enough to give a discount. I drive a 1996 Jeep. My work truck is a 1992 Dodge. I have to agree with Matthew 6:25-34 and give no thought to the morrow though. Extending a kindness to Gods people may help them. I have food everyday and my electricity hasn't been shut off, so I'm good. Praise the Lord!

Times are hard too. It's been cold lately and when someones furnace quits, it's a high priority to fix it and could even sometimes dip into their grocery money. I try to take it easy on the poor, the widows and single moms. An extra kindness to Gods people wouldn't hurt me one bit. God takes care of me.

I do mostly service but I do New Construction sometimes. There's a little bit of building going on here. Almost 400 house burned from a forest fire recently and there's lots of rich californians moving here and some's building houses. I wont get into building tract houses because they pay little and demand much.

 

[Milk-Drops]

On paper I think you should be able to give a discount out to any group you so choose. The only thing I'll point out is that Christians tend to be the majority of the US population you could possibly end up giving 9 out of 10 a discount. What I mean by this is that lets say some Atheist or other religious customers find out that their neighbor gets a discount and everone else on their street gets a discount, but they don't. See what I mean. I think your idea is noble and you have evey right to do it, but think of it in how its going to look to your clients. Maybe rename it to the "friendly discount" and maybe base it on how "Christly" people treat you. Just my thoughts.

 

[Mike S]

I'm self employed, and was considering creating a Christian discount to customers. I wondered if I may be setting myself up for grief or trouble by doing so. This is not something that I would necessarily advertise, but rather upon entering a customers home, if I seen evidence of God in the home such as a Bible laying out, or a picture of Christ on the wall, or hearing something they say indicating a faith in God, to declare the discount and cut them a break, based on the evidence of Christ in the home. Just a way to extend kindness to Gods people.

But knowing the litigious nature of people nowadays, I have to wonder if this could bring me trouble or be considered discriminatory to attempt such a thing.

What do you think?

I think it's a wonderful idea to help other Chrisitans. I've been doing it for years. Most of my business is industrial, but I frequently work with individuals or organizations that I give a discount to, or even do work for free. It's one of the advantages of owning my own company.

 

[Edward]

On paper I think you should be able to give a discount out to any group you so choose. The only thing I'll point out is that Christians tend to be the majority of the US population you could possibly end up giving 9 out of 10 a discount. What I mean by this is that lets say some Atheist or other religious customers find out that their neighbor gets a discount and everone else on their street gets a discount, but they don't. See what I mean. I think your idea is noble and you have evey right to do it, but think of it in how its going to look to your clients. Maybe rename it to the "friendly discount" and maybe base it on how "Christly" people treat you. Just my thoughts.

Yeah, that's the thing. Almost everyone calls themself a Christian, but many are not. Otherwise 9 out of 10 would get it. I don't intend to ask. I will just look for evidence of Christ in the home. Something they say first, a picture of Christ, a Bible laying out rather than on a shelf with dust on it, things of that nature. If I do see or hear, perhaps I will ask roundabout...are you one of those people who believe in Christ or God or whatever? thereby not to appear to be looking for a yes answer. (!) Then if they confess and not deny, they get it. I will write it as perhaps simply, discount. They will know why but will have nothing in writing that could be taken before a judge and used against me. It is sad that it would have to be done this way, but the world hates Christians more and more lately and while I am not ashamed of the gospel or Christ, why give the haters a potential opening to bring on me grief that may be avoided by simply going about it in a shrewd manner. This way, Gods people have a small blessing brought to them.

 

[jeffreynaylor2009]

It is not discriminatory to decide who receives the benefit of our charity as long as we are not prejudiced with evil in our hearts.

 

[Obadiah]

I just finished researching and purchasing some new sound equipment for my church and saw one company advertising to "ask about our discount to churches". (Unfortunatly their regular price was so high that even after the discount it was still higher than other companie's regular prices. :-( ) But this was a large company and was openly advertising this, so I can't see how what you are thinking of doing would be a legal problem. Now if instead of a discount to Christians, you gave a price increase to anyone you determined to not be a Christian, that would be different and probably cause you trouble.

 

[Edward]

Yeah, I don't want to be that guy. I see those companies that advertise 50% off and some such, but their prices are so high to start with that they make more money after the discount than I do before. I like to play it straight from the get go. Probably why I'm still here after 19 years and have seen many of my collegues come and go with their own businesses.