Queens Employee Discrimination Lawyers

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces federal laws that protect employees from workplace discrimination. There are a number of federal laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace, including but not limited to the following:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: This law makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person because of the person’s race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. It prohibits workplace discrimination at multiple stages of employment, from the application and hiring process, to promotions at work, to termination. In addition, Title VII makes it unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an employee who exercises his or her rights under Title VII. Beyond specific acts of discrimination, Title VII also requires employers to provide employees with reasonable accommodations for the employee’s sincerely held religious practices. Similar to the ADA, which we will explain below, the employer is only exempted from providing a reasonable accommodation if it would result in an undue hardship to the employee’s business operation.
• Pregnancy Discrimination Act: This law is an amendment to Title VII, and it makes it unlawful to discriminate against an employee because of the employee’s pregnancy, because the employee gave birth to a child, or because the employee has a medical connection connected to a pregnancy or childbirth. Under this amendment to Title VII, it is also unlawful for an employer to retaliate an employee who exercises her rights under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA): An employer cannot discriminate against a person on the basis of age when the person is 40 years old or older. The law protects job applicants and current employees from age-related discrimination. It also prohibits employers from advertising certain jobs on the basis of age (for example, an employer cannot advertise a job by saying: “Only applicants aged 35 and younger should apply”). The ADEA also protects employees from retaliation. Under the ADEA, it is unlawful for an employer to retaliate against an employee because the employee filed a discrimination charge, simply complained about discrimination, or participated in a discrimination investigation.
• Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Under the ADA, it is illegal to discriminate against a person with a disability. The law protects people at various stages of employment, from the job application process through to employment promotions and terminations. The ADA protects people with various types of disabilities, including physical and mental disabilities. In addition, the ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for those with disabilities as long as providing the accommodation would not create an undue hardship for the employer.
• Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA): Under the EPA, it is unlawful to pay men and women different salaries for performing equal work in the same job. In other words, an employer cannot hire a man and a woman to perform the same job at the same worksite and pay them different amounts because of their sex.