Photo by Glyn Lowe Photos.

It’s a tough but very real irony faced by many in the District — the longer they’re unemployed, the harder it gets to find employment.

But under a new law proposed by D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown last week, District-based employers could no longer discriminate against someone for having been unemployed than they could for being black, gay, Jewish, or a woman. The legislation, the “Unemployed Anti-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2011,” would extend protections under the D.C. Human Rights Act to the unemployed, forbidding employers from discriminating against someone applying for a job simply because they are unemployed at the time or have been at some point. Additionally, the law would prohibit employers from saying in any job advertisement that a person’s status as unemployed would disqualify them from a job.

The only exceptions allowed would be for jobs in which an employer could reasonably claim that an extended period of unemployment in that same field would have an impact on an applicant’s ability to do the job.

During his introduction of the proposal, Brown noted that unemployment in certain parts of the District greatly exceeded national rates. Though the city’s overall unemployment rate has tracked closely with the national percentage, hovering between nine and 10 percent, unemployment in Ward 8 has stood between 25 and 30 percent, one of the the highest rates in the country.

Expected opposition from the business community hasn’t yet materialized, though the D.C. Chamber of Commerce said that it would discuss the legislation with its members when it came up for a hearing. Max Farrow, a communications advisor for the Chamber, noted that their concerns include an overly expansive definition of what constitutes a “human right” and the possibility that local businesses would be exposed to further litigation than they currently are.