Discriminatory behavior in a social setting is wrong, immoral, hurtful and in some cases, it could even become unlawful. Discriminatory behavior at work, on the other hand, is always unlawful when it applies to someone who has a protected status. The most common forms of unlawful workplace discrimination relate to gender, age, disability status, color, national origin and religion.
However, even though work-related discrimination is unlawful, it might not be entirely easy to enforce these laws – especially when the victims of the employees don’t even know what constitutes this kind of abuse. So that employees can be as alert as possible to the signs of employment discrimination, here are some primary examples of the behavior:
- Stating a preference during job advertisements for candidates who fit a specific racial, religious, age or gender category.
- Refusing to recruit employees from certain protected statuses.
- Denying benefits and compensation to employees who belong to a protected status.
- Giving unequal pay amounts to employees based on their race, gender, sex, religion or disability status.
- Denying employees access to certain areas of the company because of their protected statuses.
- Laying off and/or promoting employees on the basis of gender and race.
- Only allowing certain employees access to disability, medical and maternity leave.
When you’re dealing with on-the-job discrimination you can be left with a demoralizing feeling in your guts, and a lot less money in your wallet. Make sure you fight back against this kind of discrimination using the full force of the law. This will not only benefit you, but also the employees who come after you.
