Employment Discrimination Law: A Comprehensive Guide

78 questions on employment discrimination law, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are front pay and back pay subject to the Title VII damages caps?
• Are independent contractors protected by employment discrimination laws?
• Are stray remarks by managers enough to prove discrimination?
• Can an arbitration agreement force my discrimination claim out of court?
• Can an employer be liable for age discrimination when it fires older workers to save on pensions or salary?
• Can an employer be sued for a discriminatory hiring test or algorithm?
• Can an employer discard test results to avoid a disparate impact lawsuit?
• Can an employer refuse to hire someone because the job would endanger that person's own health?
• Can an employer's honest but mistaken belief defeat a discrimination claim?
• Can a prevailing employer recover attorney's fees in a discrimination case?
• Can a supervisor be held personally liable for discrimination?
• Can I sue for claims I did not include in my EEOC charge?
• Can same-sex harassment violate Title VII?
• Does a discrimination plaintiff have to look for another job?
• Does an employee have to complain internally before suing for harassment?
• Does an employee have to explicitly tell the employer she needs a religious accommodation?
• Does an employer have to accommodate an employee's disability by granting extended leave?
• Does an employer have to violate a seniority system to accommodate a disabled employee?
• Does applying for Social Security disability benefits bar an ADA claim?
• Does Title VII protect employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity?
• Do federal employees follow the same process for discrimination claims?
• Do I have to plead a prima facie case of discrimination in my complaint?
• Do majority-group plaintiffs face a higher burden in reverse-discrimination cases?
• How do employment discrimination cases usually end?
• How does a plaintiff prove that an employer's stated reason is pretext?
• How do I evaluate whether I have a viable employment discrimination case?
• How long do I have to file a discrimination charge with the EEOC?
• How many employees must a company have before Title VII applies?
• How much time between a complaint and an adverse action is enough to show retaliation?
• Is an employer liable for discrimination if the decisionmaker did not know about the employee's protected characteristic?
• Is disparate impact available under the ADA in the same way as under Title VII?
• Is failure to exhaust with the EEOC a jurisdictional defect?
• Is the employee-count requirement in Title VII jurisdictional?
• What are the main federal employment discrimination statutes?
• What are the Title VII damages caps?
• What causation standard applies to age discrimination claims under the ADEA?
• What causation standard applies to Title VII retaliation claims?
• What counts as an adverse employment action after Muldrow v. City of St. Louis?
• What counts as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA?
• What damages are available under the ADEA?
• What does GINA prohibit?
• What does Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing hold about pretext and summary judgment?
• What does the Pregnancy Discrimination Act require?
• What does the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act add beyond the Pregnancy Discrimination Act?
• What happens after an EEOC charge is filed?
• What is a disparate impact claim and how is it proved?
• What is a mixed-motive discrimination claim?
• What is constructive discharge and how hard is it to prove?
• What is national origin discrimination, and how does it differ from citizenship discrimination?
• What is protected activity for purposes of a retaliation claim?
• What is the ADA interactive process?
• What is the after-acquired evidence doctrine?
• What is the bona fide occupational qualification defense?
• What is the cat's paw theory of liability?
• What is the difference between but-for causation and motivating-factor causation?
• What is the difference between disparate treatment and disparate impact?
• What is the difference between quid pro quo and hostile work environment harassment?
• What is the Equal Pay Act and how does it differ from a Title VII pay claim?
• What is the four-fifths rule?
• What is the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework?
• What is the ministerial exception?
• What is the OWBPA and what does it require for a valid age-claim waiver?
• What is the standard for an adverse action in a retaliation claim?
• What makes an employee a valid "comparator" in a discrimination case?
• What mistakes do employers most often make in discrimination cases?
• What mistakes do plaintiffs most often make in discrimination cases?
• What must an employee prove to win a hostile work environment claim?
• What must an employer do when an employee requests a religious accommodation?
• What remedies are available for employment discrimination?
• When are punitive damages available in an employment discrimination case?
• When does the clock start running on a discrimination claim?
• When is an employer liable for harassment by a co-worker or a customer?
• When is an employer liable for harassment by a supervisor?
• Who counts as a "supervisor" for harassment liability purposes?
• Who is protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act?
• Why are retaliation claims often stronger than the underlying discrimination claim?
• Why does state employment discrimination law often matter more than federal law?
• Why do plaintiffs plead 42 U.S.C. § 1981 alongside Title VII in race cases?