Workplace Discrimination
What is Workplace Discrimination?
Workplace discrimination is when an employee experiences some adverse action based on a protected characteristic such as race, gender, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, age, sexual orientation, and gender identity by employers. Discrimination can take many forms, whether it be sexual harassment, pay discrepancies, denied promotions, termination, and many others.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from subjecting employees to and adverse employment action on the basis of protected categories, including race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment), and national origin.
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Some additional federal laws prohibit discrimination, including:
- The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination, requiring equal pay for equal work;
- The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older;
- Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities;
- Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), which prohibits discrimination against members of the military and protects their civilian employment while they are engaged in military service; and
- Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), which prohibits employment discrimination based on genetic information about an applicant, employee, or former employee.
Discriminatory practices do not just include hiring and firing. Other discriminatory practices include:
- Harassment. The most common type of harassment is sexual harassment, although harassment is prohibited on the basis of any protected category;
- Retaliation against an individual for filing a charge of discrimination, participating in an investigation, or opposing discriminatory practices;
- Employment decisions based on stereotypes or assumptions about the abilities, traits, or performance of individuals of a certain sex, race, age, religion, or ethnic group, or individuals with disabilities, or based on myths or assumptions about an individual’s genetic information; and
- Denying employment opportunities to a person because of marriage to, or association with, an individual of a particular race, religion, national origin, or an individual with a disability.
- In addition to the protections provided by Title VII and other federal laws, state laws such as the Illinois Human Rights Act, as well as local ordinances, provide similar protections. However, the Illinois Human Rights Act and other local ordinances also provide protections for individuals against discrimination based upon one’s sexual orientation, gender identity, arrest record, housing status, and more.
Retaliation
Retaliation in the workplace can occur in many different ways. There are a number of state and federal laws that protect employees from retaliation as a result of taking actions such as reporting illegal conduct, participating in a legal proceeding against the employer, exercising certain legal rights, or refusing to participate in illegal or unethical conduct at the employer’s direction. Some examples of retaliatory actions taken by an employer include demotion, disciplining, firing, laying off, intimidation, reassignment to a less desirable position, or reducing pay or hours.
Exercising Legal Rights
There are many state and federal laws that not only afford employees certain legal rights in the workplace, but also establish additional protection for employees who exercise those rights and face retaliation for doing so. Some examples of laws that include anti-retaliation provisions include:
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII)
- Age Discrimination and Employment Act (ADEA)
- Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
Whistleblowers
Whistleblowers are the guardians of the public interest. There are a wide range of different state and federal whistleblower laws that apply in various contexts. For instance, in Illinois, the Illinois Whistleblower Act (IWA) protects employees against retaliation for disclosing information to a government or law enforcement agency when that employee has reasonable cause to believe that the information discloses a violation of a state or federal law. The Act further protects employees from retaliation for refusing to participate in an activity that the employee believes would result in a violation of a law or regulation.
