Understanding Equal Opportunity Employment Laws

Answer 1

Equal Employment Opportunity laws protect job applicants by making it illegal for employers to ask certain information on job applications. The purpose of this is to help prevent discrimination. Employers cannot ask about a person’s race, gender, age, religion, disability, marital status, etc.

Answer 2

In the United States, all citizens are guaranteed protection against employment discrimination due to a body of equal opportunity employment protection that was signed into law as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At the time, the act was intended to protect Americans from employment discrimination based on their nationality, race, sex, religious beliefs or color. In the decades to come, further acts were passed that protected employees from discrimination based on their age, military service, family history, genetics and physical or mental disability. The federal government has yet to pass a similar act to protect employees from discrimination based on their sexuality, but twelve states and a number of local governments have passed this type of legislation.

< h4>How to File an Equal Opportunity Employment Complaint< /h4>

If you feel that you have been wrongly denied an employment opportunity or are not receiving equal pay based on your race, sex, religion, disability, age, color or national origin, you can file an official complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Complaints can be filed in person at local EEOC offices or by contacting the EEOC by mail or telephone. The EEOC will ask you provide them with as much relevant information as possible, and volunteering any relevant documentation that you have concerning your case will be very helpful to the EEOC when they investigate a claim. In most cases, the EEOC requires claimants to file their complaint within 180 days of experiencing an example of discrimination, and failure to file a complaint in a timely matter can have a considerable impact on the outcome from a subsequent private lawsuit.

< h4>How Disabled Citizens are Protected from Employment Discrimination< /h4>

The Americans with Disabilities Act provides disabled citizens with a considerable amount of protection against employment discrimination. So long as employing a disabled person does not require an employer to undergo considerable hardship in order, they are obligated by federal law to demonstrate that they are make reasonable accommodations for qualified job applicants. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect citizens who have a mental or physical disabilities that make it impossible to perform a specific job. For example, a blind person is not protected from employment discrimination for positions which require driving or operating certain types of machinery. If you believe that you have been denied employment due to a disability that does not require a potential employer to make unreasonable accommodations in order for you to perform your job, you are encouraged to file a complaint with the EEOC.