protected classes
Legally safeguarded categories
Protected classes are categories of people legally shielded from discrimination—typically in employment, housing, and public accommodations.
Federal law in the United States protects against discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, and disability.
State and local laws often add protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, and other characteristics.
The company's hiring practices violated protections for several protected classes.
- workplaceEmployment location
- hostile work environmentLegally actionable workplace harassment
- employment discriminationUnequal treatment in hiring
- Title VIIEmployment discrimination prohibition statute
- genderSocial identity category
disability · Americans with Disabilities Act · reasonable accommodation · race · marital status · disparate impact · Civil Rights Act · equal opportunity · sexual orientation · protected status · housing · religion · veteran status · pregnancy · national origin · color of law · Stonewall riots · suffrage movement
- social groupsdemographic groups, community, clan, ethnic groups, age groups
- civil rightsequal rights, Civil Rights Act, right to life, Voting Rights Act, civil liberties
- discrimination lawanti-discrimination, nondiscrimination, gender bias, pay discrimination, discrimination lawsuit
- equal rightsequal treatment, equal pay, equal opportunity, discrimination law, anti-discrimination
- labor rightsworker rights, labor laws, union rights, employee rights, right to strike
- Workplace Discriminationage discrimination, disability discrimination, equal pay, gender bias, pregnancy discrimination