If you’ve been made the victim of discrimination in the workplace, then it’s worth exploring the possibility of compensation with an experienced discrimination lawyer who can help you navigate the legal process. Workplace discrimination is a pernicious issue that continues to plague many companies across the United States. Laws such as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act protect employees from discrimination based on age and pregnancy, respectively. As such, it’s important that you pursue justice — not just so that you can be compensated personally, but so that you can pressure companies to do better, as mandated by laws like the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act so that others don’t have to suffer the same humiliation and loss that you did.
Let’s explore some of the basics.
What sort of behavior qualifies as discrimination under federal anti-discrimination laws?
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal law around discrimination in the workplace is: “Unfair treatment because of your race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, disability, age (age 40 or older), or genetic information.”
Specific examples of federal laws that protect against discrimination include the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Federal laws such as the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act also play a crucial role in prohibiting various types of discrimination in the workplace, such as race, color, national origin, religion, and age discrimination. Federal and state laws have similar implementations intended to protect employees against discrimination, discriminatory behavior, workplace misconduct, and sexual harassment, among other related issues.
If you fit into one of these “protected categories” and your employer treats you unfairly due to your identity as a member of a protected category, then you could be entitled to sue them for compensation due to illegal discrimination in the workplace.
What are some examples of employment discrimination?
Examples of workplace discrimination include, but are not limited to:
- Termination of employment due to an employer discovering that their employee belongs to a particular religious group
- An employer refusing to promote an employee because of their marital status
- The creation of a hostile work environment in which colleagues routinely insult an employee because of their race or national origin
- Racial discrimination, such as unfavorable treatment due to race or protection against retaliation for filing a lawsuit or complaint related to racial discrimination
- Discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions as prohibited by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act
- And much, much more
Discrimination covers a great many scenarios — it’s as diverse as those who are often the victims of discrimination themselves. That’s why it can sometimes be challenging for victims of discrimination to realize that they’ve been discriminated against. Because discriminatory conduct can be subtle, it’s not always clear whether an “adverse employment action” was taken against the employee for discriminatory reasons, or for some other, legal reason.
For example, in the United States, employment is at-will. That means that your employer can generally fire you for any non-discriminatory reason, at any time. There are a few exceptions, including any protections that you may have negotiated into your employment contract.
Given at-will employment, your employer can fire you for rather strange reasons — like your love of a rival sports team. As odd as that would be, it’s perfectly legal for them to fire you because of that. The key in many discrimination-based employment disputes is to dive into the evidentiary record and evaluate whether the employer’s conduct was motivated by a discriminatory reason or not. If there is sufficient evidence of such, then you could have an actionable employment discrimination case.
What to do if you are being discriminated against?
If you’re being discriminated against in the workplace, here are some steps that you should take to preserve your claims and maximize the likelihood of success should you decide to move forward with litigation:
- Document everything. Save chat messages, and work emails, and record audio of situations that reveal the discriminatory conduct at issue.
- Consult an attorney. This will ensure that any further communications you have with your employer about the discriminatory conduct will not undermine your potential discrimination claims.
- Attempt to have the discriminatory conduct handled promptly in a manner that favors your health and safety. If the employer does not handle the conduct promptly and properly, then that will strengthen your claims.
- Take note of retaliatory actions taken by your employer.
- Identify other colleagues who may have encountered similar discriminatory conduct in the workplace, as their testimony could be helpful to your case.
- Work with your attorney to move forward in a timely manner, so that you do not come up against any statute of limitations deadlines that could prevent you from securing compensation under the law.
Phew! That’s a lot of steps to consider — you can see how important it is to work with a qualified discrimination attorney who can help you navigate these and other processes when moving forward with a discrimination complaint.
How to talk to HR about unfair treatment?
Though you should bring up unfair treatment and discriminatory conduct to HR (this is useful for documentation purposes, and to evaluate whether the employer will take steps to correct the issue), it is recommended that you consult with an employment discrimination lawyer before doing so.
That’s because HR is not your ally. The purpose of your company’s HR team is to create a work environment that benefits your employer — and to manage issues when they come up so as to minimize the employer’s risk of liability.
As such, any HR meeting covering such serious issues will involve the potential for undermining your case if you’re not careful about what you say — sensitive, problematic disclosures are easy to make in a meeting with your peers.
Damages in discrimination claims
Workplace discrimination can have knock-on effects on many other areas of your life, particularly since the psychological ramifications tend to be significant and may last for a very long time. Claimable losses include:
- Wage loss (from being terminated)
- Loss of earning capacity (i.e., lowered earning capacity over career due to unfair and discriminatory treatment, and due to self-esteem issues caused by said discriminatory treatment)
- Medical expenses (i.e., medical bills related to therapy and other mental illness-related treatments in the wake of severe discrimination)
- Pain and suffering (specifically, the emotional distress, humiliation, and mental suffering linked to the discriminatory conduct)
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of companionship
- And more
The Equal Pay Act also makes it illegal to deny equal compensation for performing substantially equal work based on gender or sex.
Damages can vary substantially from case to case. This is due to the unique circumstances and tolerances of each individual.
For example, one person may be extremely vulnerable and may have faced a lifetime of discrimination, resulting in them being particularly sensitive to discriminatory conduct — this may lead to severe psychological issues (and substantial damages) in the wake of employment discrimination. By contrast, another person may be less impacted psychologically by the discriminatory conduct. Their pain and suffering damages are likely to be less.
With the aid of an experienced labor lawyer and professional experts, you’ll have the opportunity to try and build up a strong claim for damages linked to the discriminatory conduct at issue.
Your employer cannot retaliate against you
Many victims of employment discrimination worry that their employer will “punish” them for bringing the discriminatory issue to their attention, or for pursuing their legal rights with respect to said discrimination. The important thing to remember is this: the law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who are exercising their legal rights, in the discriminatory context or otherwise. Federal anti-discrimination laws prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who are exercising their legal rights.
Employer retaliation can take on many forms. Put simply, however, if the employer takes any adverse employment action against you (i.e., they fire you, refuse a promotion, demote you, refuse a raise, move you to a less desirable location, etc.), and they do so in response to you exercising your legal rights, then you will have an actionable retaliation claim. After all, it’s important that employers follow federal laws and state laws when it comes to protecting employees against discrimination (such as religious discrimination). Failure to do so, and even worse, a willingness to retaliate against employees who are simply seeking fair treatment, is a serious offense that could lead to significant liability.
Retaliation claims are independent of your original discrimination claim. As such, you can sue your employer for both discrimination AND retaliation, putting additional pressure on them to offer a reasonable settlement compromise.
Don’t stress about costs — workplace discrimination lawyers don’t have to cost anything upfront
A persistent myth continues to pervade the general public’s view of legal representation — it is commonly (but incorrectly) believed that one must have a great deal of money in order to bring a lawsuit. In other words, litigation is seen as so costly upfront that it is beyond the means of normal people.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Most plaintiffs’ employment discrimination attorneys working in employment disputes (and injury disputes) offer contingency fee arrangements. Under these contingency fee arrangements, the attorney doesn’t take payment upfront or out-of-pocket. Instead, they accept a percentage cut of whatever compensation they’re able to secure on your behalf — this percentage can vary from 25 percent to 40 percent (or more).
If you don’t “win” any compensation, you don’t pay anything to your attorney. And if you do win compensation, then your attorney takes the promised percentage cut.
This not only lowers the barrier-to-entry for litigating your discrimination lawsuit, but it also incentivizes your attorney to work relentlessly on your behalf to maximize compensation. That’s because they only get paid if you win — and the more you get paid, the more they get paid.
Contact 1-800-THE-LAW2 for a Free Legal Consultation
If you’ve been discriminated against in the workplace, then you may be feeling confused and overwhelmed, humiliated and defeated. Fortunately, the law is structured to protect you against discrimination — workplace discrimination could therefore entitle you to significant compensation. Navigating the legal process isn’t always straightforward, however, especially in complex workplace disputes. That’s why it’s critical that you consult with an experienced labor law attorney for guidance.
Contact 1-800-THE-LAW2 for a free consultation with qualified discrimination lawyers in our network who have the experience necessary to represent employees in many kinds of disputes, including a discrimination-based civil lawsuit. During this initial legal consultation, you’ll have the opportunity to speak plainly about your case and learn more about what your strategic options are for securing the compensation you deserve. If you decide that you’d rather not continue with the attorney in our network, there’s no obligation to do so. As such, there’s really no downside to picking up the phone and calling in for a consultation today.
Our workplace discrimination lawyers look forward to assisting you — whether you’re looking to pursue a formal complaint for wrongful termination, or simply looking to explore what sort of compensation you might be entitled to (such as lost wages, fringe benefits, etc.) due to discrimination based on your identity as a member of a protected class.
