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Introduction to
Federal Employment Discrimination Law
 

Introduction

If you have not read Introduction to Legal Research, you should read that article first.

Something to keep in mind

In these articles, we use the words "employee" and "employer" in the broadest sense. For example, we might say that "the employee sued for race discrimination because the employer did not hire him."

Well, if the employer never hired him, he is not technically an employee (he is a job applicant) -- and the employer is not technically the employer (it is the potential employer). But we use the terms "employee" and "employer" in their broadest sense just so we can consistently refer to the alleged victim of discrimination as the employee and the alleged perpetrator of the discrimination as the employer.

An example of why this article is no substitute for legal advice

Employment discrimination laws can be federal, state or sometimes even local laws. This article will focus only on federal law -- which will introduce you to the basic concepts of employment discrimination law. However, this article is not a substitute for legal advice from an attorney in your community. Employment discrimination law is complex and constantly evolving. Furthermore, there can be significant differences between federal, state and local anti-discrimination laws.

For example, let's assume a secretary at a local company believes she is being harassed based on her gender by the company president. She goes to the mall, buys a book on federal employment discrimination law and learns that gender harassment claims are filed under Title VII. She also learns that an employer can only be sued under Title VII if it has fifteen or more employees. Since this company only has fourteen employees, she decides not to pursue her claim.

But this company is located in Tennessee. If the secretary had consulted with an attorney in her hometown, the attorney would have told her that she can sue under Tennessee state law for gender harassment because Tennessee state law prohibits gender harassment by an employer with eight or more employees.

So the bottom line is: Don't treat this article (or any articles on this Web site) as a substitute for legal advice.

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