Are you considering contacting a lawyer about discrimination, harassment, or mistreatment at work?  It may be tempting to wait.  You think: “Let’s see how this plays out.  Learn if the company will do the right thing.  Maybe they will promote you, or transfer you, and maybe things will get better.  You have a lot on […]

Effective January 6, 2020, New York banned employers from asking job seekers and employees about their compensation history. The same law, Labor Law § 194-a, prohibits employers from relying on salary history in deciding whether to offer employment to an applicant as well as in determining salaries for applicants and employees. The law also prohibits […]

The EEO-1 survey is an incomparable source of data on employee diversity at U.S. corporations. The survey is conducted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and requires private employers with over 100 employees to collect race and gender data on their employees on an annual basis. The data collection includes, among other data points, a […]

In the wee hours of December 21, 2020, Congress passed a COVID-19 stimulus package following months of wrangling and stalemates. After nearly a week and much criticism, President Trump signed the bill into law. Despite its massive length—almost 5,600 pages—the bill falls far short of fully meeting the urgent needs of American workers. Congress last […]

As long as there has been discrimination in the workplace, courageous employees have spoken up about it. In the past year, employees have pushed hard for workplace equity, as examples from the Audubon Society, Google, Pinterest, and elsewhere show. Unfortunately, many employers have reacted with retaliatory firings. The story of AI Ethicist Timnit Gebru at […]

On September 22, 2020, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13950, “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping,” which, contrary to its title, seeks to undercut workplace equity and inclusion. The Executive Order—ostensibly targeting the anti-racism trainings that proliferated in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent national reckoning with systemic racism—prohibits federal […]

A ground-breaking lawsuit against Cisco tests this novel question. On June 30, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”) filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of a Dalit Indian (“untouchable” caste) engineer who alleges that he was discriminated against by high-caste Indian supervisors and coworkers.[1] The suit alleges that Cisco management […]

Sanford Heisler Sharp is at the forefront of the movement holding the opioid industry accountable for the ruinous effects its drugs have had on people and governments throughout our country. This opioid work pits us against the companies that profited off the addictive potential of the drugs they peddled. New EEOC guidance indicates that our […]

Many Americans are familiar with the formulation “reasonable accommodation,” which the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to make on for employees who have a disability. The ADA is a federal law. Less well known is that New York City has its own counterpart law that protects employees with disabilities. The New York City […]

For job applicants, disclosing their current or prior salary can be one of the most anxiety-inducing parts of interviewing for a new job. Beginning on October 1, 2020, however, a new Maryland law will go into effect, prohibiting employers from asking job applicants for their wage history or relying on wage history in making hiring […]

As the recent murders of innocent African American civilians like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others remind us, the United States has a long way to go in its struggle for racial justice.  While current efforts against racial inequality are rightfully focused on police brutality, race discrimination in employment has a long […]

The past few weeks brought mixed results for plaintiffs at the Supreme Court. Although the Court surprisingly extended Title VII’s protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation in Bostock v. Clayton County, the Court wrapped up its term by extending the so-called “ministerial exception”—which exempts certain employees of religious institutions from employment protections—to a […]

The Supreme Court recently decided two cases, Our Lady of Guadalupe v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel, both on appeal from the Ninth Circuit, that clarified the scope of the so-called “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws. According to the Court, under that exception, “courts are bound to stay out of employment disputes involving […]

Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia has rightly been heralded as a true milestone for LGBTQ rights, including by my colleague Alok Nadig, who describes the decision here. Bostock brings LGBT Americans into the fold of Title VII’s protections against discrimination “because of sex” and has important ramifications with regard to other federal laws adopting similarly-worded […]

The Supreme Court’s opinion released earlier this week in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia represents an outstanding milestone in the LGBTQ civil rights movement, and numerous posts and articles rightly celebrate this, including this one by my colleague Alok Nadig. The opinion also reminds us of several concepts that can benefit all victims of unlawful […]