Employee Rights Against Discrimination at Work

Anti-discrimination laws are central to civil and human rights. They help make it possible to earn a fair living regardless of your race, religious beliefs, and other attributes. These laws only allow limited exceptions for reasonable business needs.

There are different types of discrimination with serious economic, psychological, and physical impacts. They can take a heavy toll on your life and career. If you have workplace discrimination concerns, talk to an employment lawyer about what you can do to protect yourself.

No matter where you work, it’s a good idea to understand the laws that protect you, including:

• Federal laws ensuring employee rights
• The right to fair wages and benefits
• The right to take time off and breaks
• Rights against discriminatory harassment
• Rights to fair and safe working conditions
• Rights against discriminatory employment decisions
• Workplace privacy rights
• The right to report discrimination without retaliation

Federal Laws Ensuring Employee Rights

Several federal laws protect employees, including those against discrimination.

Federal employment laws include, but aren't limited to, the following:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Employers can’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. These categories are known as “protected classes.” Title VII applies only to employers with 15 or more employees. The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division enforces this law.

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): People can't be discriminated against based on their disability if they can perform the job's essential functions with reasonable accommodation. The ADA defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment substantially limiting one or more major life activities.

• Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA): Employers can’t give preferential treatment to younger workers to the detriment of older workers. This law applies to workers 40 and older and workplaces with 20 or more employees. It doesn't prevent an employer from favoring older employees over younger employees.

• Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): This law establishes federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and the workweek. It clarifies nonexempt workers. The law also sets youth employment standards in the private sector and federal, state, and local governments.

• Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA): Employers must compensate employees similarly for equal work.

• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): Employers must allow eligible employees to take up to a 12-week leave of absence for qualified serious health conditions. It can cover your condition or a condition of certain family members. To qualify for the leave, the employee must have worked for the employer for 12 months and for 1,250 hours in the 12 months preceding the leave. It secures a qualified employee's job for the duration of the leave. It also preserves their group health insurance.

• Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA): OSHA aims to protect workers’ safety and health. It creates standards for the conditions of employment regardless of who the worker is. This law also prohibits employers from discriminating against an employee who reports a safety or health concern.

• National Labor Relations Act (NLRA): This law protects workplace democracy. It gives private employers’ employees the right to seek better working conditions, with or without a labor organization, without fear of retaliation.

Federal Government Agencies

Federal agencies like the following administer employment laws:

• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• The U.S. Department of Labor
• The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
• The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

State Laws Expand Federal Discrimination Protection

State employment laws may provide even more protection to employees. For example, many states have higher minimum wage requirements than the federal guidelines. As a result, employers must pay based on the state's minimum wage.

The Right to Fair Wages and Benefits

Employment discrimination often concerns unfair wages. Employees have legal protection against discriminatory pay practices.

Factors like your skills, experience, and location can affect how much your boss pays you. Responsibilities might differ between employees enough to justify higher compensation. Employers might also award bonuses based on job performance. Coworkers can, therefore, receive different pay due to legitimate factors.

But, discriminatory factors are not legitimate reasons for lower pay. The Equal Pay Act says that employers must give workers the same wages if they have the same job responsibilities. The Civil Rights Act also bans discriminatory pay. For example, a manager can’t cut the pay of a 58-year-old worker to try to get them to retire earlier, which could qualify as age discrimination.

The Right to Take Time Off and Breaks

Federal laws protect rights for taking time away from work, including unpaid leave and sick leave laws. Employers can’t discriminate when deciding whether to approve vacation or leave. They also can’t penalize you for a discriminatory reason if you call in sick or request time off.

For example, new and expecting parents have protection against losing their jobs because of parental leave. Maternity leave is a protected FMLA right. However, employers are not required to provide paid parental leave.

Likewise, employers can’t discriminate about break and rest periods. Some workers, such as breastfeeding mothers and smokers, have specific protections for break time and activities. Breaks can be part of a reasonable accommodation for a disability under the ADA.

Rights Against Discriminatory Harassment at Work

Some forms of discrimination involve harassing behavior, such as:

• Use of a slur
• Physical harassment, such as hitting or pushing
• Offensive jokes about a group of people
• Excessive or harmful pranks
• Deliberate exclusion from conversations or events

Harassment is illegal at work in general, but discrimination may be an additional factor. An employee might be the target of harassment because of their religion, race, gender, or another attribute. Or, an employer might fail to intervene to stop harassment based on a discriminatory bias. Discrimination may lead to a hostile work environment for the employee.

The Right to Fair and Safe Working Conditions

Many legal disputes about employee rights concern working conditions. Workers have a right to a safe workplace free of dangerous conditions, toxic substances, and other potential safety hazards.

Discrimination can affect workers’ safety. It can create a situation in which a worker faces a unique danger. For example, disability discrimination could mean a supervisor doesn’t let a worker use the mobility equipment they need. The employee suffers a much higher risk of a falling accident at work.

Discriminatory practices might also cause intimidation that reduces safety. A worker might feel pressured to not speak up about an injury or hazard. They may worry the employer would punish them or refuse to take their concern seriously.

Failure to address discrimination and bullying can also lead to a higher risk of workplace violence. OSHA recognizes violence as a safety hazard.

Rights to Fair Hiring, Termination, and Promotions

You have rights against discrimination — from the moment you apply through the moment you leave a job.

Employers can’t discriminate in employment decisions, including:

• Who to hire for an open role, such as discarding job candidates’ applications based on their name
• Who to promote, such as making a comment that women aren’t suited for a managerial position
• Who to include in a round of layoffs, such as laying off all staff of a particular nationality
• How to divide employees’ job responsibilities, such as only giving young workers special projects and opportunities that help their career advancement
• Whether to fire a worker, such as firing someone for asking for a reasonable accommodation for their disability

Job Applicants Have Anti-Discrimination Rights

Job applicants also have certain rights even before being hired as an employee. Those rights include the right to be free from discrimination based on:

• Age
• Gender
• Race
• National origin
• Religion
• Genetic information
• Sex, including sexual orientation, sexual harassment, and gender identity

For example, an employer can't ask a job applicant certain family-related questions. Also, they must get consent before a credit or background check of a prospective employee.

Although these rights exist, discrimination against job applicants may be hard to prove. Many candidates don’t get feedback about why they weren’t hired. Interview discrimination is often verbal with no recording or other evidence. These issues make it harder to recognize and address hiring discrimination.

Workplace Privacy Rights

In most states, employees get a certain level of privacy in the workplace. Among other benefits, this privacy can shield personal details that could introduce bias in the workplace. For example, privacy can help keep your marital status, medical conditions, or native language personal if you prefer to do so. Discrimination is still illegal, but privacy laws give employees more control.

This employee right applies to personal possessions, which can include:

• Handbags
• Briefcases
• Storage lockers accessible only by the employee
• Private mail addressed only to the employee

Employees may also have a right to private telephone conversations or voicemail messages. However, employees have limited rights to personal email and internet use while on the employer's system.

Unfair invasions of privacy can also be a form of workplace discrimination. For example, a manager might only subject employees of certain races or national origins to drug testing. They don’t have a clear business need or reasonable suspicion of employee drug use. Or, a business owner might install security cameras in an employee lactation room. This intrusion could violate FLSA protections.

The Right to Report Discrimination

Anti-discrimination laws are only as effective as their enforcement. That’s why federal laws also make sure employees have a way to report discrimination at work.

Employees may report discrimination in several ways, including:

• A direct manager or supervisor
• The employer’s human resources department
• A Charge of Discrimination through the EEOC
• An OSHA complaint for safety and health hazards

An internal complaint of discrimination can sometimes solve the issue. The employer could have a chance to change its employment practices or address behavior.

But, discrimination disputes may need a deeper investigation and resolution. This is especially the case if an employee already lost their job or substantial wages because of the discrimination. A formal complaint process with a government agency can help keep the outcome as fair as possible for the employee. If the agency finds the employer broke the law, the employee can work with a lawyer to decide whether to sue or settle the case.

Rights Against Retaliation for Reporting Discrimination

Employees are protected from retaliation for filing a claim or complaint against an employer. These federal protections are called "whistleblower" rights. An employer can’t retaliate against a worker who files a discrimination report — even if the investigation finds no wrongdoing.

For example, a manager can’t reduce the worker’s shifts, lower their pay, or fire them. The manager can do these things if they have a legitimate reason, such as if the worker stops going to work. Yet, any adverse action they take could risks raising suspicion against the employer. In the investigation, it might serve as more evidence that the employer was acting unfairly.

Get Legal Help to Confront Discrimination at Work

Employees have many rights against discrimination under federal and state laws. If discriminatory practices or policies have harmed you, talk to an experienced employment attorney. They can explain your options and protect your legal rights.