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The ADEA prohibits employment discrimination nationwide based on age with respect to employees 40 years of age or older. The ADEA also addresses the difficulty older workers face in obtaining new employment after being displaced from their jobs, arbitrary age limits.

Executive Order No. 11478 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin by federal contractors and contractors performing under federally assisted construction contracts.

The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) requires covered federal government contractors and subcontractors to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment specified categories of veterans protected by the Act and prohibits discrimination against such veterans. In addition, VEVRAA requires contractors and subcontractors to list their employment openings with the appropriate employment service delivery system, and that covered veterans receive priority in referral to such openings.

The Equal Pay Act (part of the Fair Labor Standards Act) prohibits wage discrimination by employers and labor organizations based solely on sex.

The purpose of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Other Rehabilitation Services Act is to empower individuals with disabilities to maximize employment, economic self-sufficiency, independence, and inclusion and integration into society.

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution limit the power of the federal and state governments to discriminate. The private sector is not directly constrained by the Constitution.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 provides a remedy for intentional race discrimination in employment by private employers and state and local public employers. The Civil Rights Act of 1871 generally applies to public employment or employment involving state action prohibiting deprivation of rights secured by the federal Constitution or federal laws through action under color of law.

Title VII is the principal federal statute with regard to employment discrimination prohibiting unlawful employment discrimination by public and private employers, labor organizations, training programs and employment agencies based on race or color, religion, sex, and national origin. Retaliation is also prohibited by Title VII against any person for opposing any practice forbidden by statute, or for making a charge, testifying, assisting, or participating in a proceeding under the statute. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 expanded the damages available to Title VII cases and granted Title VII plaintiffs the right to jury trial.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as the ADA, is the Federal Law that prohibits Employment Discrimination on the basis of a person's disability. In addition to its impact on employment discrimination, the ADA also requires that companies provide accommodations both to their employees and in some cases the public, such as requiring doors to be at least three feet wide so that a wheelchair can pass. The ADA prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities by employers, employment agencies, labor organizations, and joint labor management committees.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides a means for employees to balance their work and family responsibilities by taking unpaid leave for certain reasons. The Act is intended to promote the stability and economic security of families as well as the nation's interest in preserving the integrity of families. The FMLA applies to any employer in the private sector who engages in commerce, or in any industry or activity affecting commerce, and who has 50 or more employees each working day during at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. The law covers all public agencies (state and local governments) and local education agencies (schools, whether public or private). These employers do not need to meet the "50 employee" test. Title II of FMLA covers most federal employees, who are subject to regulations issued by the Office of Personnel Management. To be eligible for FMLA leave, an individual must (1) be employed by a covered employer and work at a worksite within 75 miles of which that employer employs at least 50 people; (2) have worked at least 12 months (which do not have to be consecutive) for the employer; and (3) have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months immediately before the date FMLA leave begins. The FMLA provides an entitlement of up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave during any 12-month period.

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) applies to most private employers. The law does not cover federal, state, and local governments. The EPPA prohibits most private employers from using lie detector tests, either for pre-employment screening or during the course of employment. Employers generally may not require or request any employee or job applicant to take a lie detector test, or discharge, discipline, or discriminate against an employee or job applicant for refusing to take a test or for exercising other rights under the Act. Employers may not use or inquire about the results of a lie detector test or discharge or discriminate against an employee or job applicant on the basis of the results of a test, or for filing a complaint, or for participating in a proceeding under the Act. Subject to restrictions, the Act permits polygraph (a type of lie detector) tests to be administered to certain job applicants of security service firms (armored car, alarm, and guard) and of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and dispensers. Subject to restrictions, the Act also permits polygraph testing of certain employees of private firms who are reasonably suspected of involvement in a workplace incident (theft, embezzlement, etc.) that resulted in specific economic loss or injury to the employer. Where polygraph examinations are allowed, they are subject to strict standards for the conduct of the test, including the pretest, testing, and post-testing phases. An examiner must be licensed and bonded or have professional liability coverage. The Act strictly limits the disclosure of information obtained during a polygraph test. The EPPA provides that employees have a right to employment opportunities without being subjected to lie detector tests, unless a specific exemption applies. The Act also provides employees the right to file a lawsuit for violations of the Act. In addition, the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration accepts complaints of alleged EPPA violations.

The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) safeguards most migrant and seasonal agricultural workers in their interactions with farm labor contractors, agricultural employers, agricultural associations, and providers of migrant housing. However, some farm labor contractors, agricultural employers, agricultural associations, and providers of migrant housing are exempt from MSPA under limited circumstances. The MSPA requires farm labor contractors, agricultural employers, and agricultural associations who recruit, solicit, hire, employ, furnish, transport, or house agricultural workers, as well as providers of migrant housing, to meet certain minimum requirements in their dealings with migrant and seasonal agricultural workers.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) provides reemployment protection and other benefits for veterans and employees who perform military service. (1) The Act sets forth the rights and responsibilities of U.S. National Guard (USNG) and U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) members, as well as their civilian employers.

An Act to amend the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 to clarify the protections given to older individuals in regard to employee benefit plans, and for other purposes. A federal law that makes it illegal for an employer to use an employee's age to discriminate in benefits or for a company to target older workers for layoffs. This law also requires employers to allow employees at least 21 days to consider waivers not to sue offered by an employer in exchange for early retirement benefits.

The basic principal of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act is that women affected by pregnancy and related conditions must be treated the same as other applicants and employees on the basis of their ability or inability to work. A woman is therefore protected against such practices as discharge from or refusal of employment, denial of opportunities or benefits because of her pregnancy, because she had an abortion or is contemplating having one. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Title VII however, covers only employers with fifteen or more employees.N

Under IRCA, employers may hire only persons who may legally work in the U.S., i.e., citizens and nationals of the U.S. and aliens authorized to work in the U.S. The employer must verify the identity and employment eligibility of anyone to be hired, which includes completing the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9). Employers must keep each I-9 on file for at least three years, or one year after employment ends, whichever is longer.

In June 1972, the President signed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §1681 et seq., into law. Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. The principle objective of Title IX is to avoid the use of federal money to support sexually discriminatory practices in education programs such as sexual harassment and employment discrimination, and to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices. Title IX applies, with a few specific exceptions, to all aspects of federally funded education programs or activities. In addition to traditional educational institutions such as colleges, universities, and elementary and secondary schools, Title IX also applies to any education or training program operated by a recipient of federal financial assistance. Many of these education program providers/recipients became subject to Title IX regulations when the Title IX final common rule was published on August 30, 2000.

The Civil Rights Act of 1991 is a United States statute that was passed in response to a series of United States Supreme Court decisions limiting the rights of employees who had sued their employers for discrimination. The Act represented the first effort since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to modify some of the basic procedural and substantive rights provided by federal law in employment discrimination cases: it provided for the right to trial by jury on discrimination claims and introduced the possibility of emotional distress damages, while limiting the amount that a jury could award.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, now known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in honor of its principal author, but more commonly known simply as Title IX, is a United States law enacted on June 23, 1972 that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Although the most prominent "public face" of Title IX is its impact on high school and collegiate athletics, the original statute made no reference to athletics.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 covers Jewish people because, at the time the Act was passed, Jewish people were considered to be a distinct race and therefore constituted a group that Congress intended to protect.

Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 protects from discrimination identifiable classes of persons who are subjected to intentional discrimination solely because of their ancestry or ethnic characteristics.

The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave annually for any of several reasons, including the onset of a "serious health condition" in an employee's spouse, child, or parent.

In order to determine an appropriate reasonable accommodation, the employer must initiate an informal, interactive process when he learns that the qualified individual with a disability is in need of accommodation.

A person with asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has an impairment that substantially limits her ability to engage in a major life activity - reproduction.

Sleeping is a major life activity under the ADA.

The California legislature amended the FEHA in 1992 defining physical disability as a physiological condition that 'limits' major life activities. The legislature later clarified in the Poppink Act of 2000 that a physical disability under the FEHA does not require the federal test's 'substantial limitation' of a major life activity, but instead the CA law's 'limit.'

Monocular vision is not invariably a disability, but must be analyzed on an individual basis, taking into account mitigating measures such as the individual's ability to compensate for the impairment by wearing eyeglasses.

An employee with high blood pressure was not "disabled" because his use of mitigating measures - blood pressure medication - allowed him to function in everyday activities.

No agency has been given the authority to issue regulations interpreting the term "disability" in the ADA. The EEOC has done so anyway, and we assume that it is a reasonable definition without deciding whether it is or is not.

To qualify as disabled under subsection (A) of the ADA's definition of disability, a claimant must initially prove that he or she has a physical or mental impairment.