Discrimination

California law prohibits employers from discriminating against an employee or a job applicant. That discrimination may arise where an employer has a practice that has a disparate impact, meaning it appears neutral but has an adverse impact on members of a protected group. It may also arise where the employer engages in disparate treatment of a member of a protected group, meaning the employer treats those members less favorable than other, such as by refusing to hire, paying them less, demoting, reprimanding, or terminating an employee or applicant based on their race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, pregnancy and pregnancy related medical conditions, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age (over 40), and military or veteran status. Simply put, disparate treatment means 

Race Discrimination

California law prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee or job applicant sed on their race. Race discrimination arises where an employer makes decisions or treats an employee disparately based on their race. Disparate treatment means that are treating that employee less favorably than others. Some examples of race discrimination may include, but are not limited to, screening out or refusing to hire members of a certain race, refusing to promote or demoting employees of a particular race, not paying members of a certain race as much as others, subjecting members of a certain race to disciplinary action or firing, harassing an employee based on their race or refusing to prevent race-based harassment, and creating employment policies aimed at certain racial groups. 

Religious Creed Discrimination

California law prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee based on their religious creed. California law also prohibits an employer from refusing to provide a reasonable accommodation for their religious belief. For an accommodation, the employee’s religious belief must be bona fide, meaning it must be genuine. And, the employer must be aware of the employee’s religious belief and the conflict that it has with their employment. The employer must make a good faith effort to provide the accommodation unless doing so would cause the employer an undue hardship. 

Disability Discrimination 

California law prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee or job applicant based on a prior or current disability. That disability may be a physical or mental disability, or medical condition. Discrimination occurs when an employer treats an employee or job applicant disparately based on that disability, despite the employee or applicant still being able to perform the essential job duties of their job or the job that they are applying for, either with or without a reasonable accommodation. 

Age Discrimination 

California law prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee because their age is 40 years or older. Age must be a substantial motivating reason for the discrimination. For example, an employee may establish age-based discrimination where they had been performing their job satisfactorily at the time that they were terminated or demoted and replaced with someone significantly younger. 

Gender Discrimination 

California law prohibits an employer from terminating or discriminating against an employee by paying them less, or giving them less favorable working conditions or conditions because of the employee’s gender.