Be wary of bias against childless employees.

The percentage of Americans who are childless by choice is growing--and that could soon trigger more resentment and legal issues in your workplace.

A full 44% of 18- to 49-year-olds who don't have children are unlikely to have them in the future--a seven percentage point increase from 2018, according to Pew Research. Some researchers believe that the number of non-parents may soon overtake the number of parents in the workplace.

Those childless workers increasingly feel discriminated against due to the allowances that their colleagues get for having kids. In a new ResumeLab survey, childless employees said that due to not having children, they have been denied time off (63%), had to work unwanted overtime (69%) and were given a greater workload (70%).

"In the workplace, differential treatment leads to resentment, resentment leads to anger, and anger can lead to litigation," says attorney Andrew Horowitz of the Obermayer law firm. He encourages employers to "find ways to accommodate working parents for the long term without making others bear the burden."

In the ResumeLab survey, almost three-quarters (74%) of workers believed that people with children are treated better in the workplace. And eight in 10 of the survey participants were parents.

Is childless bias...