How to Defend Yourself Against Discrimination in the Workplace

Imagine you are next in line for a promotion. You have the skills but you get passed up because of the color of your skin, gender, religion or age. You are a woman and enjoy your work but get an unpleasant surprise when you find out you earn considerably less than your male counterpart who performs the same duties as you. Discrimination in the workplace does not have to be tolerated, thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It protects people against discrimination based on race, skin color, age, religious creed, country of origin and sex, among others.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Documentation of every incident where you felt discriminated

1. Know your rights. It is illegal for an employer to discriminate against anyone based on marriage or association with people of a different race and belonging to an ethnic association or ethnic group. A future employer must never ask prospective employees if they are married or have children and deny hiring them based on their answers. An employer must not hire a woman and pay her less than a man performing the same duties.
2. Document every incident where you feel you have been discriminated against, with dates and precise details. Keep the documents as your personal diary. Make sure none of this evidence is kept at work. Keep it at home.
3. Keep a log of all your mail, phone calls and emails, especially ones from any federal entity.
4. Try to perform your duties as professionally as possible while you are compiling evidence, to keep your employer from using your lack of initiative as an excuse to dismiss you or take action against you.
5. Contact the EEOC or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal entity responsbible for investigating discrimination in the workplace.