It’s simple: Federal law forbids discrimination in every aspect of employment. More specifically, the laws enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or employee because of that person’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or genetic information.
There are specific federal laws that:
- Protect men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment against sex-based wage discrimination.
- Protect individuals age 40 and older from broad discrimination.
- Prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, and in federal, state, and local governments.
- Prohibit employment discrimination based on genetic information.
These anti-discrimination laws apply to just about every aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, compensation, transfers, promotions, layoffs, job advertisements, recruitment, testing, training, retirement benefits, and more. The laws also address behaviors and activities such as harassment or retaliation against an individual for filing a discrimination claim. For 2017, the EEOC found that retaliation was the most frequently filed charge, followed by race and disability.
