There are some questions that are illegal. Such as, “Are you a U.S. citizen?” The legally allowed question is “Do you have right to work legally in the U.S.”? It doesn’t matter if they’re a citizen or not.
But lots of questions that people think are illegal are not. There are very few that are actually illegal.
This is an illegal question? Right now a dozen or so states are holding individual employers legally liable to prove the citizenship of their employees. (Arizona, I believe, is the latest state to pass legislation on this.)
According to a document posted on the Pacific University website (PDF here):
Some of the questions they specifically list as illegal are:
They listed a total of 20. I’m not trying to snark, but I’d really be interested to see some cite that the questions commonly thought to be illegal are not illegal.
Banyard posted the exact same thing I did.
Well, obviously I’m not going to be able to find a law that states there are no illegal questions.
But from that PDF you cited, there is even a section that says “Under Title VII pre-employment inquiries concerning national origin are not considered violations of the law in and of themselves”
Those questions that you state are illegal, are actually cited in that document as being “improper” or “inappropriate”.
No, this is not an illegal question. Some positions (security sensitive) actually require U.S. citizenship.
However, Sean Factotum, employers are legally liable to prove only that their employees are eligible to work in the U.S. – not that they are U.S. citizens. Proof is usually obtained AFTER employment though – not during pre-employment questioning.
http://www.sacsconsulting.com/ht0007.htm
And see, http://www.dot.state.oh.us/dist3/highway/construc/eeo/question.htm
Previous thread: Illegal questions in job interviews
The link given in your previous post says that asking when someone graduated from high school is legal. I didn’t read the PDF yet. Age discrimination is only valid at age 40 and older so it doesn’t matter if someone who is clearly well under 40 is asked anyway. It doesn’t matter if you don’t hire them because you don’t like 30-year-olds: they can’t sue for age discrimination. They have no standing.
These all “sound” like they’re personal information that the employer doesn’t have a reason to ask and yet they are all legal. Lots of people think that ANY question relating to anything except exactly and specifically that particular job are illegal. They’re not. In many cases it’s up to the applicant to figure out how to answer the question without providing any “negative” information, which often people are too nervous or flustered to do, so they give answers that tell the employer more than they really need to know. But they didn’t ask an illegal question to get the info.
Obviously a few of those above are ridiculous. But legal. People have this idea that employers can’t ask certain things, and it’s really that employers don’t in order to avoid the hassle of a lawsuit. It’s the discrimination based on the answer that is illegal, not the question itself. And there are lots of nutty things someone can discriminate on and there’s nothing illegal about it: if I don’t like people who drive Fords, I don’t have to hire one, even if she’s the best-qualified.
Is this a joke? The state will most likely do nothing at all until receiving repeated complaints, from one person or a whole bunch of people.
I think that law is a requirement that employers verify I-9 information, isn’t it? Not that they prove someone’s citizenship. Edit: also, it’s after they are hired, not before.
Unless the law has been changed very recently, it’s illegal to ask BEFORE hiring if someone is a U.S. citizen. What is legal is either “Do you have the right to work in the U.S.?” and “If hired, would you be able to meet the security clearance requirements of this job?” and jobs that have a security-clearance requirement that one be a citizen must state this in the advertisement and during the application process. If there is no security-clearance requirement, then it is not required that anyone be a U.S. citizen: merely that they have the legal right to work in the U.S. and have the necessary papers to prove it.
Oh, sure. I agree that these are all fine (in the last case, as long as the job requires that task at some point). I’ve been asked these questions plenty of times.
These have nothing to do with job performance, and I’d be suspicious. The baseball question I can see coming up in smalltalk. I don’t know what information my response would give that could be used to discriminate, unless the interviewer wants to weed out anyone who isn’t a Sox fan. Maybe he wants to see if I grew up in the area or something. Rephrase #6 as “Do you like shellfish”, and I think we have a serious no-no.
Thanks for coming in! I’m curious about the prohibition against asking about military discharge status. Why are you prohibited from asking about dishonorable discharges? Of course, I have no idea what would cause someone to be dishonorably discharged. I always figured you got it for some violation of military laws. Can you ask about convictions for violations of military law?
What do you mean by this?
There are no laws that prohibit discrimination based on food preferences. There are also no laws that prohibit employers from asking questions in interviews that aren’t job related.
I’d like to elaborate on this. One can be perfectly eligible to work in the US, but not be a US citizen. Among other things, while I think most states allow a someone to start working at age 16 or younger, you can’t start the process of becoming a US citizen until you turn 18. Being a minor, legal immigrant didn’t stop me from working for the town library when I turned 16 or from holding a bunch of jobs in college before I was naturalized. There are jobs for which being a citizen of the US is a requirement and, as I found out the hard way, being in the process of becoming a citizen doesn’t make you eligible for them. The only ones I’ve run into like that are jobs working for the US government, although I wouldn’t be surprised others exist. That’s why, “Are you a US citizen?” is more problematic than, “Are you eligible to work in the US?”
I realize this is a pet peeve, but it does get tiring when people conflate legal and illegal immigrants.
This is incorrect. Age discrimination is age discrimination is age discrimination. The point is that age discrimination from age 40 onward is illegal. Asking a question so as to determine age, regardless of the actual age of the applicant, is illegal (unless there are specific, legitimate merit reasons to be concerned about age, and only then may mean a minimum age to satisfy a legal requirement. So if the job is to work in a liquor store, asking a question of each applicant as to whether they meet the minimum age requirement set by law would be acceptable. Asking a question to determine the age because the employer doesn’t want someone keeling over from a heart attack – assumed to be age 40 or more – because they have to regularly lift and carry full cases of beer, liquor, etc., is not.). The intent of the question is to find out the age of the applicant, and whether or not they might fall into a protected class.
In addition, if you ask an applicant an age-related question question, when the interviewer assumes the applicant is under 40, the intent has already been established regardless of the age of the applicant. It gets worse if the next applicant is assumed by the interviewer to be age 40 or more and does not ask an age-related question. If an investigation is later revealed that the interviewer is deliberately asking/not asking age-related questions based upon an assumed perception of age of the applicants, true intent is again displayed.
Dodgy. If an applicant is made aware of the transportation requirements and they still apply, it is none of the employer’s business whether their transportation is reliable.
Dodgy. Again, similar to the above question. A good employer will put the info into the job announcement and not ask the question.
Dodgy. Professional organizations imply age discrimination.
Warning Bells. Special accommodation questions often are used to discriminate against disabled people and those with lifestyles outside of the “norm.” It’s an iffy gray area, depending upon the size of the workforce of the employer and the specific anti-discrimination laws the employer may be subject.
Dodgy. It can imply age discrimination. More importantly, OSHA considerations lurk in the background where the employer may not care if you get hurt on the job.
Questions irrelevant to doing the job, unless it’s a seafood place, a bakery or you work at Wrigley Field. The implication is to determine religious status of the applicant and the employer won’t accommodate outside of normal Saturday/Sunday weekends.
Having said all this, each series of questions may not be illegal at face value, but several of these questions during an interview may go to establish discriminatory intent.
A decent interviewer will only ask merit questions directly related to performing the job and legitimate qualifications to do the job. Any questions asked outside of these two main areas should be seen as suspect and an attempt to gather information where the intent may be to discriminate.
Switching states because I found the Illinois statute first:
So Illinois, at least doesn’t bar discrimination based on dishonorable discharges, it’s the ones in-between: Integrated Publishing - Your source for military specifications and educational publications
Connecticut:
http://web.uconn.edu/wwwode/quest.html
and see http://en.allexperts.com/q/Civil-Service-Jobs-2315/job-Other-Honorable-discharge-1.htm (Some states, however, prohibit discrimination based on military discharge. Such laws do not prohibit denial of a job due to a criminal conviction, which accompanies punitive separations. You should really check with your own state to determine eligibility.)
Some of these questions are absolutely legitimate questions for employers to ask.
“Do you have reliable transportation?” is relevant for employers who need their employees to, you know, SHOW UP ON TIME.
“Can you lift 50 lbs?” is relevant for employers who need their employees to carry heavy objects.
Kosher Jews don’t eat shellfish. It’d be like asking, “We looove pork around here! You?”