Starting in the 1960s, Congress began enacting a comprehensive set of federal laws to eliminate major forms of employment discrimination.  These laws, which were passed to guarantee equal employment opportunity to all employees and job applicants, have been broadly interpreted by the federal courts, particularly the US Supreme Court.   As you saw in the last module, the distinction between employees and independent contractors determines whether you are protected not only by wage and hour laws, but also federal and state employment discrimination laws.  Thus, workers classified as independent contractors are not protected by Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, or the Americans with Disabilities Act.  If you are interested in this issue, you’ll find a recent EEOC article on this issue as an enrichment reading.

States have also enacted fair employment laws that prohibit discrimination.  In addition to protecting individuals on the basis of race, color, nationality, religion, gender, age, and disability, state law may add other protected groups.  Wisconsin, for example, prohibits discrimination based on arrest and/or conviction records, marital status, sexual orientation, honesty testing, and use (or nonuse) of lawful products off the employer’s premises during nonworking hours.   In contrast, Georgia law only prohibits discrimination by public employers (e.g., the state, political subdivisions, school districts) on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, national origin, color, religion (the federal protected classes) and retaliation.

This module builds on the Employment Law module to focus on federal equal opportunity in employment laws and the prohibition against discriminating against job applicants and employees.  As you progress through this module, you’ll examine the scope of coverage, theories, defenses, and remedies under the Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended by the 2009 ADA Amendments Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008.  Even with changes to statutes, the law identifying protected classes is still evolving, as courts use their decisions to reexamine the scope of employment protections.  A recent example is the Supreme Court’s extension of sex as a protected class under Title VII to include gays and transgender individuals, as you’ll see in the content of this module.

Because so much of this area is governed by federal statute, you’ll find extensive links to the statutes, agency guidance, best practices, and statistics on the EEOC website.  You’ll also find links to current examples of discrimination in the workplace, as well as continuing and/or emerging legal issues addressing English-only policies, the role of unconscious bias in hiring, whether employer-sponsored wellness plans violate GINA, the intersection between discrimination based on religion and national origin, and whether employers can discharge workers based on their appearance (from facial hair to tattoos).  This is a fascinating area of the law and this module only begins to introduce you to the complexities of employment discrimination.