San Francisco
Workplace Discrimination Lawyer

Whether you are in New York City or San Francisco, workplace discrimination is against the law. If you file a discrimination complaint, it is also against the law for your employer to retaliate. While workplace discrimination is unlawful, achieving justice and compensation is rarely easy. With the help of an experienced workplace discrimination lawyer, you can fight for your rights and obtain the best resolution possible. From negotiating settlements to taking the case to trial, the right legal representation can help you stand up for your rights.

What Is Workplace Discrimination?

Discrimination can look like many things in the workplace. People often think of discrimination as racial slurs or overt actions like firing someone based on their gender. Discrimination can be extremely subtle. It can be as simple as passing over someone for a promotion when they are the most qualified person for the job. Since discrimination can be hard to recognize, employees can always talk to a workplace discrimination attorney to find out if they have been discriminated against and what they can do about it.

Workplace Discrimination Statistics

According to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), there were 91,503 charges of workplace discrimination in just 2016. In total, the EEOC managed to attain more than $482 million for people who were victims of workplace discrimination. Each year, the agency receives more than 585,000 calls because of how prevalent this problem is.

In 2016, 42,018 of the charges were about retaliation. This amounts to 45.9 percent of all of the charges that were filed that year. Out of the EEOC’s discrimination cases, 35.3 percent were connected to race, and 30.7 percent were because of a disability. While 29.4 percent of claims were related to someone’s sex, age discrimination accounted for 22.8 percent of cases.

Race discrimination is incredibly common in the workplace, and many people may not even realize that they are victims of discrimination. An estimated one out of three people go through some type of race discrimination. When you compare the earnings of white men to other races, they earn more for doing the same work. Hispanic men earn only 69 percent as much as white men. Meanwhile, black men earn just 73 percent as much. When someone is a woman and non-white, the results are even worse. Hispanic women earn only 54 percent as much as white men. In research studies, scientists have also discovered that job applicants get more calls for an interview if their name sounds white.

Discrimination Vs. Harassment

Workplace discrimination involves an employer making assumptions based on a protected characteristic like race, age or gender. Likewise, it is against the law for an employer to automatically assume that someone is not capable of performing a job because of a disability.

An employer might discriminate against someone by firing them or passing them over for a promotion because of their religion or another legally protected personal trait. They might deliberately avoid hiring people of a particular race, or they might deny the employee retirement benefits because of a discriminatory reason. According to federal law, companies are not allowed to withhold employment opportunities or harass someone because of personal traits that are protected by the law.

Meanwhile, harassment is a type of employment discrimination that involves unwelcome conduct. This kind of behavior is unlawful if putting up with the offensive conduct is required to keep your job. To be unlawful, the conduct must also be severe enough to make the work environment hostile, intimidating or abusive. If someone reports a discrimination charge, employers are prohibited from retaliating against that person.

Harassment may include slurs, physical assaults, threats, offensive jokes or name calling. While harassment might be from an employer or a supervisor of a different sector, it can also be from a co-worker or a non-employee. No matter who does it, harassment is a violation of the law.

Types of Workplace Discrimination

Workplace discrimination can happen for a variety of different reasons. Someone can be discriminated against for age, gender, skin color, race, national origin, genetic information or ethnicity. Employers are not allowed to discriminate against you based on pregnancy or being a parent. It is also against the law to discriminate against someone for a mental disability, a physical disability or a relationship to someone who might be discriminated against.

Unfortunately, there are many different ways that a workplace can discriminate against an employee. An employer might deny you benefits or compensation. They may even list job advertisements that ask for candidates who are a certain race or age. If someone applies who does not fit their discriminatory criteria, they may exclude them from an open position. Discrimination can also happen when the employer gives a promotion or decides to lay people off.

An employer might discriminate in the way they give employees parental leave, disability leave or retirement benefits. When the employee is still employed at the organization, they may be denied or blocked from using the company’s equipment or facilities. On a basic level, discrimination happens when an employer offers employees with the same qualifications different salaries for doing the same job.

Do I Need to Hire a Workplace Discrimination Lawyer?

If you have been discriminated against in San Francisco, help is available. A workplace discrimination attorney can help prove discrimination using direct and circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is the best way to demonstrate that discrimination happened. This evidence might be direct statements or messages from an employer that says that they are discriminating based on qualities like your age.

Since supervisors generally try to hide their prejudices, circumstantial evidence is often used to make a discrimination case. Supervisors are trained by their attorneys and company policies not to express their personal biases openly. Because of this, many cases have to use circumstantial evidence to show the courts that there is a presumption of discrimination.

The legal system and discrimination laws can be complicated, but a talented attorney can help you prove your case. With the help of a workplace discrimination attorney, you can build a case against your employer. Through a free consultation and evaluation of your case, you can learn more about your options and decide on your next steps.