Best Ohio Employment Discrimination Attorney Answer: What can I do if I didn’t get the job because of my age? Can employers chose not hire Muslims? Can an employer decide to not hire me based on my disability?
As employment lawyers, we see many, many more unlawful terminations than we’d like. Employer biases, whether based on race/color, religion, gender/sex, national origin, age, and disability are common. When those biases enter into the decision to fire an employee, our employment law attorneys step in. Federal and Ohio law prohibit employers from basing hiring, promotion, and termination decisions on the above-listed protected classes. A manager cannot fire a worker simply because she does not like men, or Caucasians, or Quakers, etc.
As we’ve previously written about (I Didn’t Get The Job Because I’m Too Old. I Need A Lawyer!; What Should I Do If I Was Rejected For A Job Because I’m Black? I Need A Lawyer!; Discrimination: Refusal to Hire), the same Ohio and Federal laws that prohibit firing decisions based on the above-listed protected classes, also prohibit hiring decisions based on those classes. An employer may not choose an Irishman over a Scot for a position because that employer dislikes Scots.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (race, color, religion, sex, national origin), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (“ADEA“), the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA“), Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (“PDA“), and Ohio Rev. Code § 4112 all prohibit employers discriminating against employees on the basis of the employees’ protected classes. The conduct that these statutes prohibits includes not just discriminatory termination, but also discriminatory hiring decisions, pay decisions, job assignment decisions, and pretty much any other decision related to the conditions of employment.
While discrimination during the hiring process is just as illegal as discrimination at other stages of the employment process, failure to hire based on discrimination is difficult to prove, especially without the help of experienced employment discrimination lawyers. One obvious reason that failure to hire claims are so difficult is that an employer can easily find distinctions among candidates to justify a given hiring decision.
Who’s to say that an employer chose one candidate over another because of a discriminatory reason? Sure, sometimes a given candidate is clearly more qualified than the field and, yet, a lesser qualified candidate is given the position. When this happens, an aggrieved candidate can point to disparate treatment. That is, despite being as qualified, or more qualified, than the chosen candidate, an older candidate was not chosen for the job. More often the pool of candidates is fairly similar in terms of experience, education, etc. When this is the case, it becomes much more difficult to prove a discriminatory failure to hire. The defending employer can look at all of the resumes for a position, after he’s been put on notice that a failed candidate believes she was discriminated against, and find some non-discriminatory difference between the successful and unsuccessful candidates.
As employment attorneys, we know firsthand that employers take candidates race, religion, age, national origin, gender, and disabilities into account far too often when making hiring decisions. A recent study by researchers at Rutgers and Syracuse gives empirical heft to our anecdotal evidence. The researchers sent thousands of resumes and cover letters on behalf of imaginary candidates for positions in the accounting industry. The researchers constructed two separate resumes. One resume was for a very well qualified candidate with six years experience. The second was for an applicant one year out of college. Then for each resume, they created three distinct cover letters. One cover letter indicated an applicant with no disability. The second was an applicant with a spinal cord injury. The third cover letter was an applicant with Asperger’s. What the researchers discovered was that potential employers expressed an interest in candidates who disclosed a disability 26 percent less frequently than candidates who did not disclose a disability.
“I don’t think we were astounded by the fact that there were fewer expressions of interest,” in disabled candidates, said Lisa Schur, one of the researchers, “But I don’t think we were expecting it to be as large.” While Dr. Shur may have been surprised by just how common discriminatory hiring decisions are, we are not. Our employment lawyers see clients every week who were clearly qualified for a position and didn’t get the job because of skin color, age, disability, religion, or national origin.
If you applied for a job and didn’t get it and believe that you were discriminated against, you may have rights under Federal and Ohio laws. Even if you are not sure about your discrimination claim, you should call the right attorney as quickly as possible to schedule a free and confidential consultation at 866-797-6040. If you are searching “I need a lawyer because I have been wrongfully fired or terminated;” or “I have been discriminated against based on my …” race, national origin, gender, age, religion or disability; or even think that you might need an employment lawyer, then it would be best to call the right attorney to schedule a free and confidential consultation at 866-797-6040. Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm and its attorneys are experienced and dedicated to protecting employees’ rights and solving employment disputes.
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