Attorneys File Gender Discrimination Claims for Women in New York City
Filing Workplace Discrimination Claims for Women in NYC
Employment discrimination attorneys at Leeds Brown, represent clients on Long Island in New York City , in claims involving gender bias. Although women are not the only ones who experience workplace gender discrimination, a significant number of females come to us with stories of unfair treatment by supervisors, managers, and co-workers.
At times, employment discrimination is unintentional, the result of apparently neutral policies that have a disparate impact on one segment of the workforce. Unfortunately, there are many more scenarios when acts of discrimination and harassment are purposeful and cause severe emotional and financial injuries to women in the workplace.
Thankfully, Congress, the New York State and the New York City legislatures have enacted laws for the purpose of protecting women from the gender discrimination that takes place in nearly all aspects of employment. “All aspects of employment” includes:
- Applying
- Hiring
- Firing
- Promoting
- Advertising for employment
- Compensating
- Assigning work
- Providing benefits
- Training
At Leeds Brown, we take pride in helping women, especially those in NYC, recover damages and other remedies that may be available when they experience workplace sex harassment and sex discrimination. Our decades of experience combined with our team-based approach mean that clients receive personal attention from aggressive and zealous advocates. If you are the victim of employment-related gender discrimination, Leeds Brown can help you file a claim against your employer and assist you to obtain a favorable resolution.
Various Laws Protect Women in New York City from Gender Discrimination
There are laws at the Federal, State, and local levels that address discrimination in the workplace. Some directly target the rights of women only, while others protect different groups of people, including men from unequal treatment.
Let’s look at some of the laws that protect women from employment discrimination:
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII is a Federal law that prohibits employment discrimination “based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.” This prohibition extends to all aspects of employment and pre-employment. Title VII also prohibits harassment in the workplace based on these characteristics. Sex harassment, when it creates a hostile work environment or is quid-pro-quo in nature, may be unlawful sex discrimination.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)
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This Federal Act amended Title VII so that it specifically protects women from discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth or medical conditions associated with them. Under the PDA a business may not refuse to hire a woman because she is pregnant if she can perform the job and may not allow prejudices or assumptions about pregnant women to guide employment decisions. Employers are required by the PDA to treat pregnancy-related conditions as they would any other short term disability.
New York State and New York City have Human Rights Laws that specifically prohibit workplace discrimination based on pregnancy and require that employers provide reasonable accommodations employees who have pregnancy-related conditions, including meeting breastfeeding needs. The laws prohibit employers or prospective employers from taking any adverse action against a woman who intends to become pregnant, is pregnant, recently was pregnant or recently gave birth.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA)-
- The EPA is part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (as amended) which established the national minimum wage and overtime rules, among other things. The EPA “prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions.” Unless there is a bona fide merit system, seniority system or a differential based on a factor other than sex, men and women must receive equal pay for equal work.
New York City and New York State Human Rights Laws-
New York State Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination based on familial status. This provision makes it illegal to discriminate against an employee or prospective employee because the individual has or will have a child or is seeking or has custody of a child. This law protects men as well as women but more often than not, women are victims of the kind of gender bias the law addresses.
Some examples of familial status discrimination may include:
- Refusing to hire a woman because she has too many children at home
- Refusing to promote a woman because of the belief that she won’t be reliable due to her family responsibilities
- Making an employment decision based on your assumption that a mother would not want to put in additional hours at work
- Refusing to hire or promote a woman because she is a single parent
- Refusing to hire a woman because you feel women belong at home
New York City Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s status as a caregiver. The law defines caregiver as a “person who provides direct and ongoing care for a minor child or a care recipient.” It includes someone who cares for children as well as someone who is responsible for a relative such as an aging or infirmed parent.
While these laws do not protect women exclusively from employment discrimination, women feel their impact far more than men. Women are more often than not, the caregivers in families and tend to be the victims of gender discrimination because they have children or are responsible for family members.
NYS and NYC HRL also prohibit employment discrimination based on someone’s status as a victim of domestic violence. New York City goes even further to require that employers provide reasonable accommodations for victims of domestic violence as needed. Again, these laws do not protect only women, but in practice, women are the ones who are most often the victims of domestic violence and therefore at risk to face discriminatory behavior.
Contact Lawyers to Learn More About Your Employment Rights
The list above is not comprehensive nor does it detail every single nuance of how the laws provide women with recourse in the event they experience gender discrimination in the workplace. For instance, laws like Title VII also prohibit retaliation against women who try to put an end to the discrimination. When an employer takes adverse action against an employee who files a complaint or reports gender bias, it may be as unlawful as the underlying discriminatory conduct.
Know your rights in the workplace and contact employment discrimination lawyers at Leeds Brown if you have encountered gender bias that has had a negative impact on your wages, job choices or work environment. Our attorneys understand that sex discrimination, though unlawful, is pervasive in New York and across America. We can help you navigate a claim with the EEOC or represent you in court if that is the path to secure the best outcome you deserve.
Contact Leeds Brown, home of New York City’s dedicated employment lawyers at 1-800-585-4658. There is a time limit to file all claims, and we can’t know how much time you have until we hear the facts of your case. Call today for a free evaluation of your workplace gender discrimination claim.
