What Is Legal to Ask in a Job Application?
Designing a job application can be a walk through a legal minefield. Questions that would be common in everyday conversation are often off-limits on a job application because they violate anti-discrimination laws. In general, a job application can legally ask only those questions that directly address a job candidate's suitability for the position.
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What's Not Legal
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Generally, a job application can't legally ask specific questions about an applicant's age, race, religion, physical attributes, family status, national origin or citizenship status. In some cities and states, sexual orientation may be off limits, too. The reason an application can't ask these questions is that it's illegal to make hiring decisions based on these factors. Employers, and job applicants, should also be aware that applications sometimes inadvertently stray into questionable territory. For example, asking a female applicant to circle whether she prefers "Mrs.," "Miss," or "Ms." is actually asking a question about marital status.
Asking Direct Questions
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If an employer wants to know whether an applicant can perform a job, the application should ask questions directly. For example, if the job requires workers to lift 40-pound boxes over their heads, then the application can ask: "Can you lift a 40-pound box over your head?" What's not legal is to assume that, say, a woman can't do such work or that a certain age is "too old" for such work. Similarly, if the job requires the worker to be available at all hours, then the application can ask: "Is there anything that would prevent you from regularly working nights and weekends?" It can't ask whether the applicant is married, has young children or is a member of a particular religious group, on the assumption that the answer will determine the applicant's availability. If it turns out later, for example, that the applicant wasn't strong enough to lift boxes or wasn't flexible enough for the demands of the job, that employee can be terminated.
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Eligibility and Suitability
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A job application can't ask a job candidate's age or citizenship -- but it can ask whether the applicant is of a legal age to work and is eligible to work legally in the United States. It can't ask about an applicant's height, weight, health or disability status -- but it can ask specific questions about the ability to meet physical requirements of the job. It can't ask about religious observances, marital status or whether the applicant has children or plans to have children -- but it can ask about the ability to work the required schedule.
After the Hire
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Some questions related to "off-limits" topics have to be asked at some point. Things such as race, gender, national origin and disability status may matter to a company's internal diversity initiatives or affirmative-action programs; marital status and a worker's number of children are important when signing up a new employee for health insurance; and so on. The time to ask those questions, however, is after a job offer has been made.
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