It is illegal to discriminate against a person (jobseeker or employee) because of his or her race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to retaliate against a person who complains of discrimination, brings a discrimination allegation or participates in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.
The law prohibits discrimination in all aspects of employment
If the employment principles or practices have nothing to do with work and are not necessary for business operation, employers or other applicable entities are prohibited from adopting the neutral employment principles and practices, which have excessive negative effects on job seekers or employees of specific race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy) or ethnic origin, or on disabled persons or certain types of disabled persons. If the employment principles or practices are not based on reasonable factors other than age, employers are prohibited from using neutral employment principles and practices, which will have too much negative impact on job seekers or employees aged 40 or above.
Position Advertisement
It is illegal to publish a recruitment advertisement to show preference for a person (job seeker or employee) or dissuade him from applying because of his/her race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years old or above), disability or genetic information.
For example, job advertisements for "women" or "recent college graduates" may discourage men and people over 40 from applying for jobs, which may violate the law.
Recruit
It is also illegal for employers to recruit new employees in a way that discriminates against them because of their race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information.
For example, an employer's employees are mainly Hispanics, and the employer relies on their word of mouth for recruitment. If almost all new employees are Hispanics, the employer's practice may be illegal.
Application and Employment
It is illegal for employers to discriminate against job seekers because of their race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information. For example, an employer may not refuse an application for a position from a person of a particular race.
Employers shall not make employment decisions based on prejudices or assumptions about a person's race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information.
If the employer requires the applicant to take the examination, the examination must be necessary and must be related to the work. The employer may not exclude persons of a certain race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin or disability. In addition, if the examination is not based on reasonable factors other than age, the employer's examination shall not exclude applicants aged 40 or above.
If disabled job seekers need conveniences (such as sign language translation) to apply for work, the employer must provide conveniences as long as the conveniences do not cause significant difficulties or costs to the employer.
Position Promotion
It is illegal for employers, recruitment agencies or trade unions to consider a person's race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years old or above), disability or genetic information when making position promotion decisions.
Assignments and Promotions
It is illegal for employers to make division of labor and promotion decisions based on employees' race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years old or above), disability or genetic information. For example, when arranging shifts, employers should not give priority to employees of a certain race, nor should they isolate employees of a certain ethnic origin from other employees or customers.
Employers shall not assign or promote on the basis of prejudices or assumptions about a person's race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information.
If the employer requires the employee to take an examination before making a decision on assignment and promotion, the employer shall not exclude persons of a certain race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin or disability, unless the employer can show that the examination must be necessary and related to work. In addition, if the examination is not based on reasonable factors other than age, the employer's examination shall not exclude employees 40 years of age or older.
Wages and Benefits
In terms of wages and employee benefits payment, it is illegal for employers to discriminate against an employee because of his race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information. Employee benefits include sick leave and vacation, insurance, access to overtime opportunities and overtime pay, and retirement plans. For example, employers may not pay Hispanic employees less than African Americans because of their ethnic origin, and in the same workplace, men and women must receive equal pay for equal work.
In some cases, employers can reduce some employee benefits of older employees, provided that the cost of providing reduced benefits is the same as that of providing benefits to young employees.
Punishment and Dismissal
When making decisions on punishment and dismissal, employers shall not consider a person's race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information. For example, if two employees make similar mistakes, the employer shall not punish them differently because of their race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information.
When deciding which employees to dismiss, the employer shall not select the oldest employee from the perspective of age.
Employers shall not discriminate when deciding which employees to recall after layoffs.
Employment References
Because of a person's race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years old or above), disability or genetic information, it is illegal for an employer to give a negative or false employment references (or refuse to prove).
Reasonable Amenities and Disability
Employers are required by law to provide reasonable facilities to disabled employees or job seekers, unless doing so would cause significant hardship or expense to the employer.
Reasonable conveniences refer to making some changes to the workplace (or regular working methods) to help the disabled understand the application for work, perform work duties, or enjoy work benefits and privileges.
For example, it is reasonable to provide ramps for wheelchair users, or readers or translators for blind or deaf employees or job seekers.
Reasonable Convenience and Religion
The law requires employers to provide reasonable facilities for employees' religious beliefs or customs, unless doing so would cause difficulties or expenses to the employer. This means that the employer may have to make reasonable adjustments to the work to allow the employee to practice religion, such as allowing the employee to voluntarily change shifts with colleagues so that he or she can participate in religious ceremonies.
Training and Internship Plan
It is illegal for training or internship programs to discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), country of origin, age (40 years or older), disability or genetic information. For example, employers should not deny training opportunities to African Americans because of their race.
In some cases, employers may set an age limit for participating in internship programs.
Harassment
It is illegal to harass employees because of race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), country of origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information.
It is illegal to harass employees because of race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), country of origin, age (40 years or above), disability or genetic information.
Harassment may take the form of libel, graffiti, offensive or derogatory comments or other verbal or physical acts. Sexual harassment (including unwelcome sexual assault, requests for sexual favors and other acts of a sexual nature) is also illegal. Although the law does not prohibit pure ridicule, random comments or isolated incidents that are not too serious, harassment is illegal if it is frequent or serious, causing hostility or aggression in the work environment, or leading to adverse employment decisions (such as the victim's dismissal or demotion).
The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, other supervisors, colleagues or people who are not employees of the employer, such as clients or customers.
It may also be illegal if harassment outside the workplace is associated with all aspects of the workplace. For example, if a supervisor harasses an employee while driving him to a meeting.
Learn more about harassment.
Terms and Conditions of Employment
According to the law, it is illegal for employers to make recruitment decisions based on someone's race, color, religion, gender (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), ethnic origin, age (40 years old or above), disability or genetic information. This means that employers must not discriminate in recruitment, dismissal, promotion and remuneration. This also means that employers must not discriminate when approving breaks, granting holidays, assigning work places or setting any other terms or conditions of employment, no matter how small.
Pre Employment Inquiry (General)
In general, the information obtained and required to be provided in the pre employment procedure should be limited to the information necessary to determine whether a person is able to engage in this work; Race, gender, ethnic origin, age and religious information are irrelevant to making such decisions.
It is explicitly prohibited for employers to investigate disability issues before explicitly hiring job seekers.
Although state and federal laws do not expressly prohibit employers from asking about race, color, sex, ethnic origin, religion or age before hiring job seekers, or from screening members disproportionately, such inquiries can be used as evidence of employers' attempts to discriminate, unless some business purposes can prove that employers have reason to ask such questions.
Therefore, it is generally advisable to avoid asking about organizations, clubs, societies and residences in which job seekers may participate, or any other questions that may indicate their race, sex, ethnic origin, disability, age, religion, color or descent.
Similarly, employers should not ask job seekers to provide photos. If photos are needed to identify personnel, they can be obtained after the employment notice is sent and accepted.
Pre Employment Inquiry：
Race
Height and weight
Financial information
Unemployment
Background investigation
Religious belief or belief
Citizenship
Marital status, number of children
Gender
Disability
Medical problems and examinations
Medical Problems and Examinations
Generally speaking, employers can make dress codes applicable to all employees or employees in certain job categories. However, there may be some exceptions.
Even if the dress code conflicts with the ethnic beliefs or customs of some employees, the employer can require all employees to comply with the uniform code, but the dress code should not be unfriendly to some employees because of their ethnic origin. For example, the dress code prohibits certain ethnic costumes (such as traditional African or East Indian costumes), but allows casual wear, which is not very friendly to employees of some ethnic origins.
In addition, if the dress code conflicts with the employee's religious customs, and the employee requests convenience, the employer must modify the dress code or allow exceptions to the dress code, unless doing so would cause too much difficulty.
In addition, if an employee requires conveniences because of disability, the employer must modify the dress code or allow exceptions to the dress code, unless doing so would cause too much difficulty.
Presumptive Dismissal/Forced Resignation
Presumptive dismissal, or making the working environment intolerable, making it impossible for normal people to stay, thus forcing employees to resign, is also discriminatory.