Employment Discrimination Under State Law
State Law Protections for Classes of Individual
Written by Jason Gordon
Updated at June 21st, 2023
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What are State anti-discrimination laws?
All states have statutes and regulations administered by state agencies to protect employees from employment discrimination. Often, these state laws will provide additional protections for employees beyond those provided by federal statutes.
Next Article: Overview of Title VII Back to: EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION
What is the role of state governments with regard to anti-discrimination laws?
At the federal level, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) generally works in conjunction with state administrative agencies in enforcing federal employment discrimination laws.
In some states, the EEOC will refer any EEOC charges to the state agency handling such complaints. This is known as deferral or deferral states.
Other states allow an application that the complaint be dually filed with the state administrative agency and the EEOC.
If a state administrative agency begins a proceedings or a state law provides relief to a discrimination charge, the EEOC must notify the state officials and wait 60 days before continuing an action.
If the state agency begins the investigation process, the EEOC will generally halt processing the claim while the state agency is investigating.
If an employee first files with the state agency, the law extends the time for filing with the EEOC to 300 days.
Discussion Question
What do you think are the benefits of a state also providing protections against employment discrimination? How do you feel about the procedure for filing both a state and federal action? Why do you think some states accept referral of all EEOC complaints, while others allow for dual processing?
Practice Question
Anna feels that she has suffered discrimination in her workplace when she was recently fired. She is considering making a legal complaint. What are her options under state law and federal law?
Related Topics
- Employment Discrimination (Intro)
- What is Employment Discrimination?
- Glass Ceiling
- What are the major Employment Discrimination laws?
- Civil Rights Act of 1866 (1981 Actions)
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- The Rehabilitation Act
- Job Accommodation Network
- Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Affordable Care Act (ACA)
- Uniform Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)
- Sexual Orientation and Identification
- What is Affirmative Action?
- What is employment discrimination protection under state law?
- Overview of Title VII (Civil Rights Act of 1964)
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- What is employment discrimination under Title VII?
- How are Title VII protections enforced?
- Wrongful Termination Claim
- Disparate Treatment
- Disparate Impact
- What is race discrimination under Title VII?
- What is national origin discrimination under Title VII?
- What is religious discrimination Under Title VII?
- What is sex discrimination under Title VII?
- What is sexual harassment or Hostile work environment under Title VII?
- Quid Pro Quo
- What is pregnancy discrimination under Title VII?
- Equal Pay Act of 1963
- Defenses to Employment Discrimination Actions