Damages in Employment Litigation: Back Pay Statutory Caps and Punitive Awards

45 questions on damages in employment litigation, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are employment settlements and judgments taxable?
• Are there constitutional limits on punitive damages in employment cases?
• Are unemployment benefits subtracted from my back pay?
• Can an ADA failure-to-accommodate claim produce compensatory or punitive damages?
• Can an employer stop back pay from accruing by offering the employee the job back?
• Can I recover my attorney's fees if I win an employment case?
• Can punitive damages be recovered against a government employer?
• Do attorney's fees have to be proportional to the damages recovered?
• Does back pay include benefits, or only salary?
• Does front pay count against the Title VII damage caps?
• Does having an anti-discrimination policy actually reduce an employer's damages exposure?
• Does the judge or the jury decide front pay?
• Do I get interest on a back pay award?
• Do I have to look for another job while my employment case is pending?
• Do state anti-discrimination laws have damage caps?
• How does a lawyer turn employment damages doctrine into a settlement number?
• How does an FLSA collective action differ from a Rule 23 class action?
• How do liquidated damages work under the FLSA?
• How do the damage layers stack in a real case?
• How do you prove emotional distress damages in an employment case?
• How far back can back pay reach under Title VII?
• Is the jury told about the Title VII damage cap?
• Is there a maximum amount I can recover in an employment discrimination case?
• What are liquidated damages under the ADEA?
• What are the tiers of emotional distress damages, and why do they matter?
• What are the Title VII damage caps under 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3)?
• What causation standard applies to an ADEA age discrimination claim?
• What causation standard applies to a Title VII retaliation claim?
• What counts as a retaliatory act under Burlington Northern?
• What damages escape the Title VII cap?
• What do compensatory damages cover in an employment case?
• What generalizations about employment damages does the aggregate data actually support?
• What is back pay in an employment case?
• What is front pay and when is it awarded?
• What is the average settlement or verdict in an employment case?
• What is the Kolstad good-faith defense to punitive damages?
• What is the statute of limitations for an FLSA wage claim?
• What makes an ADEA violation “willful”?
• When can an employee recover punitive damages from an employer?
• Which federal statutes govern employment damages and what does each provide?
• Who has the burden of proving a failure to mitigate damages?
• Why does the same firing produce different damages under different employment statutes?
• Why do most employment cases settle?
• Why do race discrimination cases produce larger verdicts than sex or disability cases on similar facts?
• Why is retaliation often the most expensive claim in an employment complaint?