Employment Discrimination
Employment Discrimination Laws
Landmark acts that
established Federal employment discrimination laws and regulations are
listed below.
Sexual harassment is
prohibited under the sex discrimination provision
of the Civil Rights Act. AIDS discrimination is prohibited under the Americans
with Disabilities Act and for government employees, under the Rehabilitation
Act.
Click the matching links in Federal
Discrimination Laws for more information.
Federal employment discrimination laws enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) mandate only the minimums to which employers
in all states must adhere.
Subsequently, states and local jurisdictions are permitted to enact their
own employment discrimination laws that include or expand the minimum protections
afforded by the Federal laws.
For example, some states and municipalities prohibit discrimination based
on sexual orientation, smoking, body weight or unfavorable military discharge,
in addition to the prohibited discriminations under Federal law. Your employee
rights are protected by whichever employment discrimination law—Federal,
state or municipal—affords the most protection.
Although their titles don't clearly indicate that they
serve as employment discrimination laws, certain other Federal and state
laws also prohibit it. For example, the Vietnam
Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act prohibits employment discrimination
against veterans who fought battles; whistleblower
laws and certain employment and labor laws have
provisions that prohibit it in the form of employer retaliation.
Employment discrimination laws are also called equal employment
opportunity laws, anti-discrimination laws and civil rights
laws. Some municipalities and states refer to their employment discrimination
laws as fair employment practices (FEP) laws. Municipal and
state agencies that enforce such laws go by various names.
For more information about discrimination laws, start by contacting the
nearest office of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission or state equivalent, or by
consulting a lawyer. Your employer can't
rightfully retaliate against you for doing either.
But, whether you contact the EEOC or state equivalent or consult a lawyer
first, don't delay if you reasonably believe that your employer has discriminated
against you. You have a limited amount of time take legal action, starting
on the date the alleged discrimination
took place. Such a time limit is called a statute
of limitations.
If the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007 or
a future equivalent becomes a new discrimination law, it will specifically
prohibit prejudice against gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers because
of their sexual orientation. (At this writing, nineteen states already
have equivalents.) Meanwhile, the Federal Government has already defined
prohibited sex discrimination in Federal employment to include prejudice
on the basis of sexual preference.
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