Employment discrimination can happen at any stage of employment. You may experience unlawful conduct during an interview.
State and federal laws prohibit employers from asking certain questions during interviews. These include:
Questions about your identity
It can be unlawful for an employer to ask questions regarding your identity attributes, including race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender, genetic information, sexual orientation, disability status, national origin, pregnancy status and marital status.
Examples include:
- Are you biracial?
- Where were you born?
- Are you a U.S. citizen?
- Where were your parents born?
- How old are you?
- Which church do you attend?
- What religious holidays do you observe?
- Are you pregnant?
- Do you have children?
- Are you planning to have children within the next year?
- Does “a particular medical condition” run in your family?
- Do you have a disability?
- Are you taking any medications?
- Have you ever filed a workers’ compensation claim? and so on
These questions can considered discriminatory. Accordingly, you can politely refuse to answer or inquire why the sought information is relevant to the job.
Are there exceptions?
An employer may ask questions about your identity attributes in some circumstances. For instance, an employer must verify they are hiring people of legal age. But they may not directly ask about your age. Instead, they may ask, “Are you over 18 years of age?”
Concerning disability status, an employer may ask about an obvious disability or one that an applicant may have disclosed when requesting reasonable accommodation during the application. An employer may also ask questions about identity information for affirmative action purposes. However, they should clearly state providing such information is voluntary.
If you believe an employer discriminated against you during an interview based on the questions they asked, learn more to understand how to protect your rights.