A Brief Guide To Employment Discrimination

Discrimination within the workplace or even prior to employment can and often does take many different forms, with each type being equally destructive and harmful to the individual or individuals that experience it. Whilst there are various different types of employment discrimination, some of the most common include the following:

Military status discrimination

Some people may find themselves discriminated against within the workplace based upon their previous or current membership/obligation to a uniformed service, such as the United States Army or the United States Navy. Companies are required to reemploy any individual that had to leave employment for a certain amount of time for military training, service, or deployment. Discrimination based on military status can take the form of not hiring an individual, failing to reemploy them, or terminating their contract due to their service.

National origin discrimination

This involves the denying of equal opportunities for employment due to the specific country that the person is from in the world or because of their ethnicity. In some cases, national origin discrimination can be based on not-needed English fluency prerequisites and/or English-only policies or rules. Additionally, it might also include treating an individual unfairly simply because of their association with a person or group of people that are associated with a particular country or territory of the world. 

Retaliation

Discrimination can happen within the workplace as retaliation for an employee pointing out that certain work practice that is performed by a company are discriminatory or have stood up and opposed them altogether. Retaliation can take the form of being refused to be hired in the first place, being terminated, being declined a promotion, and/or being generally harassed. Read more about discrimination lawyers here and how they can help you.

Color and race discrimination

Where an individual is denied equal employment opportunities because of their race or certain characteristics that are associated with particular races, such as facial features or hair texture, then this is deemed to be color/race discrimination. This might include treating an individual unfairly because of their association with specific groups of people that are of the same color or race.

Sex discrimination

Women are more susceptible to being subject to sex-based discrimination due to the fact that they can become pregnant. Employers are likely to favor men over women that are of childbearing age as they do not want to have to pay their wages whilst they are off being pregnant and giving birth. As well as discrimination based on a person’s sex, it can also take the form of discrimination over the sex that someone identifies as or their sexual orientation, e.g. gay, lesbian, or bisexual.