Workplace marital status discrimination happens when an employer focuses on marital status rather than an applicant’s or employee’s skills or job performance. This type of discrimination is unlawful in California under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), as outlined in Government Code section 12940(a). FEHA applies to employers who employ five or more workers. It outlaws practices such as refusing to hire, dismissing, or not promoting employees based on their marital status.
In California, there are robust and explicit legal protections against discrimination based on an individual's spouse's identity, ensuring that personal relationships do not influence employment decisions. There are also robust and explicit legal protections against marital status discrimination under federal law, which lacks clear protection. Employees are also provided with specific mechanisms for reporting violations and obtaining remedies through the Civil Rights Department. This guide will help you understand your rights, identify illegal behavior, and take informed action against workplace discrimination based on marital status.
Understanding Marital Discrimination in the California Workplace
California is based on the assumption of at-will employment, which means that either the employer or the employee may end the working relationship at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice.
However, this broad discretion is subject to legal limitations. It is strictly constrained by public policy and statutory regulations that prohibit termination or adverse action based on protected characteristics. These are some of the classes that are safeguarded, and one of them is your marital status. As you move around the professional world of California, you have a legal right to be evaluated based on your ability, experience, and work ethic, and not on whether you choose to wear a wedding ring or not in the office.
California marital status discrimination persists despite these obvious legal prohibitions. It often disguises itself under the guise of cultural fit or preconceptions regarding an employee's time flexibility. The employer may assume that, since you are single, you have no responsibilities beyond your job and can work late every night, or conversely, that since you are married with children, you are not committed enough to be promoted.
The first step in successfully combating discrimination is understanding the full scope of the law. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) serves as a primary defense against such prejudice. It requires that your personal life choices concerning marriage or partnership should not be mixed with your professional judgment. The extent of FEHA marital status protection is crucial in safeguarding your rights and ensuring that your career path is defined by your skills, not your marital status.
How FEHA Defines and Protects Marital Status
The first step in successfully combating discrimination is to understand the extent of the law's protection. The marital status in the FEHA is construed to capture all the relationship statuses. There is a general misconception that this protection is only applicable to married individuals or, conversely, to single people.
However, the law is intended to safeguard all forms of civil status, particularly in the context of marriage. The government code section 12940 guarantees that regardless of your position in the relationship spectrum, information cannot be turned against your job security.
Protected Marital Statuses Under California Law
The benefits that are provided to you encompass a broad spectrum of personal situations. The law is stringent when it comes to discriminating against single employees, meaning that employees who have never been married are accorded equal professional respect and provided equal opportunities as their married counterparts.
In the same way, if you are already married, you are not subject to the prejudices that your attention is divided. The law goes further to cover the separated individuals, who are going through the sometimes-challenging divorce procedure, or those who are widowed. These protections mean that if an employer fires you in California simply because you are going through a divorce, you may have grounds for a wrongful termination claim.
Moreover, registered domestic partnerships are recognized by the law. In California, a registered domestic partnership is legally identical to marriage under state discrimination laws. Thus, in the case of a registered domestic partnership, you have the same rights against discrimination as a married individual.
It is also crucial to note that the law deals with perceived marital status. This implies that when an employer takes action against you because they think you are married or are about to be married, but you are not, they have infringed the law.
As an example, when a hiring manager will not hire you due to the sight of an engagement ring and will think that you will soon be taking time off to have a wedding and a honeymoon, the hiring manager will be liable for discrimination, even though their assumption about your plans may be correct. The law is not that concerned with the technical correctness of your marital status, but rather the motivation of the employer and the bias that influenced their decision.
Common Forms of Marital Status Discrimination
Discrimination is hardly proclaimed with a formal memo that you are being fired because you are single or married. Instead, it commonly manifests as subtle remarks, indirect behavior, or unjustified restrictions on career advancement. The identification of these trends is the initial step towards constructing a case.
You should be keen on monitoring the policies that apply to you only, as compared to your coworkers with different marital statuses. The unequal treatment does not necessarily occur immediately. Still, it can accumulate over time, resulting in an unpleasant working environment or causing a significant economic loss in the form of lost opportunities.
Hiring and Promotion Bias
One of the most prevalent areas where marriage or singleness is used as a basis for refusing to hire is the hiring process. There is a tendency for employers to have childish or unconscious prejudices regarding territory and commitment.
As an example, a hiring manager may examine the resume of a man in his thirties and conclude that he is unstable or flighty, in contrast to a married candidate, and reject him for the job based on a stereotype instead of his work record.
On the other hand, young married women are widely discriminated against. An employer may discriminate against a qualified married female applicant by illegally overlooking them on the basis that they are likely to become pregnant soon and leave the workforce because they are married and marriage is a precursor to unavailability.
California law also prohibits employment barriers that limit advancement based on an employee’s marital or family status. For example, when you are a single parent or a single person, you are often overlooked for leadership positions compared to married individuals. An employer may defend this by saying that the married person needs the money more or that they represent the family values of the company. This is unlawful. On the same note, the effects of hiring bias are usually characterized by interview questions that seek to explore aspects of your personal life. Such questions as "What does your husband do?" Or “Do you intend to get settled soon? These are red flags.
These questions are intended to gather information regarding your marital status, which the employer is not legally permitted to use in making their decision. If you respond to these questions and are later turned away, then there is a strong possibility that your responses influenced the decision.
Unequal Treatment and Benefits in the Workplace
After being hired, the discrimination may continue through unequal terms and conditions of employment. Unequal pay based on marital status can be a form of spousal discrimination in the workplace. For example, an employer may pay a married male employee more at the outset, based on the outdated belief that he is a breadwinner in a family, and pay you, a single female employee with the same qualifications, a lower salary.
This inequality is a direct contravention of equal pay legislation as well as the marital status discrimination legislation. The legislation requires that compensation be based on job responsibilities, experience, and education, rather than the perceived financial needs of the employee, given their household setup.
The other point of dispute is administrative needs, including a name change. In cases where a married woman prefers to keep her birth name, employers have no authority to force her to use the name of her husband in the company directories or email addresses. Coercing an employee to identify themselves professionally using a name that they do not legally or socially identify with is a type of harassment and discrimination.
Moreover, you also need to be aware of the specifics of anti-nepotism laws in California. Although employers are usually free to implement policies that prohibit spouses from overseeing each other to eliminate conflicts of interest, they cannot use the same to ban the hiring of spouses in different departments where there is no supervisory relationship.
When an employer has a blanket policy of saying we do not hire spouses and uses it to turn you down because your spouse works in a totally different department of the company, it can be found to be unlawful discrimination.
The courts have drawn the line between reasonable restrictions of supervision and unreasonable prohibitions on employment based on who you are married to. The prejudice in this case is based on the identity of your spouse, which California courts have found to be an aspect of the protection of marital status.
The Intersection of Employment Law and Divorce
Divorce is one of the most stressful events in a person's life. It involves emotional turmoil, financial reorganization, and significant time demands. Unfortunately, this weakness often spills over into the workplace, leading to unfair treatment.
As a professional, you may realize that your employer develops a different attitude towards you the moment they learn that you are about to dissolve your marriage. They may start to consider you a liability, believing that the court action will prompt you to abandon your job. However, being fired because you got divorced is a violation of your rights under FEHA.
When an employee is divorcing, employers tend to use stereotypes. They can brand you as an emotional risk or even think that you will be unpredictable and unreliable. When you are a high-performing employee, and suddenly you are under scrutiny whenever you declare your separation, then you are probably experiencing divorce discrimination issues in the workplace.
The law shields you against punishment due to the change of your marital status itself. Although an employer may expect you to perform to the same standards as the rest, they cannot take the initiative to demote or fire you in anticipation that your performance will decline.
For example, if you request earned leave to attend court hearings or meet with your divorce attorney, but similar leave is granted to others for personal reasons, this may indicate a discriminatory motive. The rights to employment in the case of divorce are strong; the fact that you are a divorcing spouse does not deprive you of your rights as a good employee.
When your employer starts stuffing your file with petty offenses soon after they learn about your divorce, it is usually a ploy to cover up an otherwise unrelated termination based on your change of marital status. You should understand the difference between justifiable performance feedback and criticism that is used as a pretext to prejudice your personal crisis.
Legal Remedies and Filing a Claim
When you suspect that you have been a victim of marital status discrimination, then it is high time you stop being suspicious and start taking action. California law provides certain avenues of redress, but these avenues are subject to strict procedural rules and limitations.
You cannot simply go to the civil court and sue your employer immediately after an incident; you must first exhaust your administrative rights. This process is crucial in the sense that you should understand how to maintain your right to damages in terms of lost wages, emotional distress, and possibly punitive damages if the actions of your employer were especially malicious.
Measures To Be Followed If You Are A Victim
Documentation is the first step and the most crucial aspect. You have to make a detailed account of the discrimination. This will involve storing emails, recording notes on verbal remarks (including dates, times, and witnesses), and retaining copies of your performance reviews. When your manager comments that you are too carefree for a job due to your single status, take note of it. Your argument will be based on this evidence.
Then, when you feel you have gathered enough evidence and are safe, you may report the behavior to the Human Resources department of your company. This has two purposes:
- It provides the company with an opportunity to correct the situation
- It provides an official record that the company knew about the harassment or discrimination
When the company does not take action, or when they take action against you because you have complained, then your legal standing becomes very strong.
A lawsuit should be filed by first filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), which is also referred to as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). This is a mandatory step.
You may submit a comprehensive investigation in which the CRD will investigate your claim, or you may request a Right to Sue notice immediately if you have already hired counsel and are willing to go to court. It is crucial to understand the process of filing a discrimination claim in California. Failure to file the claim within the stipulated time, which is usually three years following the discriminatory act, may render you incapable of ever pursuing justice.
After receiving the Right to Sue notice, you have one year to file your civil lawsuit. This is where the special knowledge of the legal counsel will come in handy. A lawsuit gives you the option of suing your employer on the grounds of marital discrimination and demanding full damages. These may involve:
- Back pay (salaries that you have lost since your firing)
- Front pay (salaries that you will lose in the future)
- Reinstatement to your job
- The pain and suffering you have suffered as a result of the discrimination
Punitive damages can be imposed in situations where the employer's actions are outrageous. This is intended to punish the employer and prevent similar occurrences in the future.
Find a Reliable Divorce Lawyer Near Me
Your profession is the result of years of dedication, learning, and hard work, and it should not be compromised due to being single, being married, or going through a divorce. California law protects employees from workplace discrimination based on marital status, ensuring that performance, rather than personal relationships, determines professional value. Illegal dismissal or discrimination can place an additional burden on your financial stability and personal dignity during emotionally challenging personal transitions. Understanding common forms of marital status discrimination and realizing that there are legal protections are necessary measures toward protecting your livelihood.
If you suspect that your employer has been unfair to you, it is crucial to act immediately to preserve evidence and file your claim within the stipulated legal timeframes. At Los Angeles Divorce Lawyer, our divorce attorneys understand how marital transition can impact your professional life. We are ready to protect your rights during challenging times. Contact us today at 310-695-5212 to schedule a confidential consultation and take the first step toward securing your future.
