Protected Class

Federal protected characteristics

Each federal protected class comes from a specific statute, with its own coverage threshold:

• Race and color: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (15+ employees) and Section 1981 (all employers).
• Religion: Title VII, including a duty to accommodate religious practice short of undue hardship.
• Sex: Title VII, including pregnancy under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, and sexual orientation and gender identity following the Supreme Court's 2020 Bostock decision. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 addresses sex-based pay differences at virtually all employers.
• National origin: Title VII, plus the Immigration and Nationality Act, which covers national origin at employers with 4 to 14 employees.
• Citizenship or immigration status: the Immigration and Nationality Act protects US citizens, nationals and certain categories of work-authorized noncitizens from citizenship discrimination in hiring, at employers with 4 or more employees.
• Age 40 and older: the ADEA (20+ employees). It protects older workers only; favoring older over younger is not prohibited under federal law.
• Disability: the ADA (15+ employees), plus Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act for federal contractors.
• Genetic information: GINA (15+ employees), including family medical history.
• Pregnancy-related limitations: the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (15+ employees) requires reasonable accommodation.
• Military service and veteran status: USERRA for service members of any size employer, and VEVRAA for protected veterans at federal contractors.

Common state and local additions

Many states and cities protect characteristics that federal law does not, or protect them at smaller employers. Common additions include marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity written explicitly into statute, age protection for workers under 40, arrest or conviction records, credit history, height and weight, hairstyles associated with race (under CROWN Act laws in many states), lawful off-duty conduct, political affiliation, source of income, caregiver or familial status, and status as a victim of domestic violence.

Coverage thresholds also drop. Several states apply their anti-discrimination laws to employers with a single employee. If you hire across many states, maintain one list of protected characteristics per jurisdiction and update it at least annually. Rules vary by state and country, and this page is not legal advice.

What is not a protected class

Some characteristics feel like they should be protected but generally are not under federal law: personality, education level, being a smoker (protected in some states), being unemployed (protected in a few cities), physical attractiveness, or general unfairness at work. An employer can lawfully reject a candidate for weak communication skills or a short tenure history, provided that reason is applied consistently.

Two cautions. First, a nonprotected reason can still be a proxy for a protected one. Rejecting candidates with long employment gaps may screen out more women and people with disabilities. Second, everyone has a race, a sex and a national origin, so these protections apply to all applicants, not just minority groups.

How protected classes affect hiring

In recruiting, the practical rule is simple: no protected characteristic, and nothing that stands in for one, should influence a decision. That shapes several everyday practices.

Interview questions. Do not ask about age, birth year, graduation year, marital status, children, pregnancy, religion, national origin, native language (unless the job requires a language and you test it directly), disabilities or medical history. You may ask whether a candidate can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without accommodation, and whether they are legally authorized to work in the US.

Screening criteria. Requirements like a minimum years-of-experience cap, a degree for a role that does not need one, or availability every weekend should be checked for adverse impact. See employment discrimination for how disparate impact claims work.

Demographic data. Voluntary self-identification data is collected separately from the application, used for reporting and adverse impact analysis, and kept away from the people making hiring decisions.

Accommodation. Candidates with disabilities or pregnancy-related limitations can request accommodations during the hiring process, such as extra time on an assessment or an accessible interview location. Make the request route obvious.

Example: a high-volume screening review

A regional logistics company hires about 1,200 warehouse associates a year. Its application includes a knockout question: "Do you have at least two years of continuous employment with one employer?" A selection-rate review shows that 61% of male applicants pass the question and 44% of female applicants do. The ratio is 44 ÷ 61 = 72%, below the four-fifths threshold.

The HR team cannot show that continuous tenure predicts performance or retention for this role, and its own data shows no difference in 90-day retention by tenure history. It drops the question, adds a short realistic job preview instead, and re-runs the review three months later. The pass-rate gap narrows and 90-day retention stays flat. That is the kind of simple check most high-volume teams can run every quarter.

Common mistakes

• Using one national list everywhere. State law often protects more people at smaller employers.
• Assuming age protection runs both ways. Under federal law it protects only those 40 and older, though some states protect all ages.
• Treating accent or language as neutral. Accent-based decisions can be national origin discrimination unless the accent materially interferes with job performance.
• Asking a "friendly" personal question. "Do you have kids?" in small talk is still evidence in a later claim.