Have You Been Discriminated Against?
Racial Discrimination – is treating someone unfairly because of his/her race. It is also very common in the workplace and typically occurs with offensive, racial names and epithets, stereotypes, and unequal treatment. A co-worker, supervisor, manager or even the owner can be the offender. The color of your skin should not impact how you are treated at work. If it does, there are two types of racial discrimination.
Disparate Treatment – This type of racial discrimination occurs when employees of another race are treated differently.
Disparate Impact – This type of racial discrimination takes place when the company or business’s policies or ways the business is run cause racial discrimination. It can be intentional or unintentional.
An example of disparate treatment would be a co-worker who makes regular comments about your skin color on a daily basis. It’s been going on for weeks or months and is making you uncomfortable at work, which is impacting your job performance.
An example of disparate impact would be a company that requires an IQ test before hiring new employees. The company isn’t aware of it, but that test has been found to be harder for some races than others and leads to lower scores for certain groups. The requirement that the test still is used to decide who gets hired is an example of disparate impact.
Pregnancy – If you get pregnant on the job, do not despair. You have certain rights that must be protected and your employer can’t just terminate you because you can’t work or need to work less due to your pregnancy.
Here are some examples of pregnancy discrimination:
- Your boss or co-workers make rude or hurtful comments about your pregnancy or your need to take time off due to complications or after you’ve given birth.
- Your boss or co-workers harass you because you’re pregnant.
- Your employer refuses to accommodate you during your pregnancy. For example, you need to go to the bathroom frequently due to pressure on the bladder, but your boss starts refusing to let you leave your desk until a certain amount of time has passed.
- Your employer fires you over someone else simply because of your pregnancy.
- An employer refuses to hire or promote you because of your pregnancy.
- Your employer keeps cutting the hours you work, without your request, because of your pregnancy.
- You’re demoted to a different job and/or pay level because you’re pregnant.
- Your employer or co-workers make rude or hurtful comments about needing time to pump milk/use a breast pump. If you’re fired or treated differently because of your need to pump milk for your newborn, that’s also discrimination that’s covered under pregnancy discrimination laws.
- Your employer denies you the opportunity to return to your job after your maternity leave ends.
Age – Age discrimination for employees over 40 years old is very common in the workplace. It starts with comments, remarks or jokes, and also includes terminations where the only employees laid off are over 40.
Age discrimination involves treating an applicant or employee less favorably because of his or her age.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) forbids age discrimination against people who are age 40 or older. It does not protect workers under the age of 40, although some states have laws that protect younger workers from age discrimination. It is not illegal for an employer or other covered entity to favor an older worker over a younger one, even if both workers are age 40 or older.
Harassment based on age can include, for example, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person’s age. Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that aren’t very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).
National Origin – National origin discrimination involves treating people (applicants or employees) unfavorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world, because of ethnicity or accent, or because they appear to be of a certain ethnic background (even if they are not). National origin discrimination also can involve treating people unfavorably because they are married to (or associated with) a person of a certain national origin. Discrimination can occur when the victim and the person who inflicted the discrimination are the same national origin. It is unlawful to harass a person because of his or her national origin. Harassment can include, for example, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person’s national origin, accent or ethnicity. Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted). The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.
Sexual Orientation – It is unlawful to subject an employee to workplace harassment that creates a hostile work environment based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Harassment can include, for example, offensive or derogatory remarks about sexual orientation (e.g., being gay or straight). Harassment can also include, for example, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person’s transgender status or gender transition.
Although accidental misuse of a transgender employee’s preferred name and pronouns does not violate Title VII, intentionally and repeatedly using the wrong name and pronouns to refer to a transgender employee could contribute to an unlawful hostile work environment.
While the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that aren’t very serious, harassment is unlawful when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).
The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.
If the harassment continues in any way, then the employee may have a valid legal claim against the employer. Sexual harassment can affect the victim in both emotional and physical ways, leading to damages such as front pay, back pay, compensatory, and punitive damages.
