NJ Employment Discrimination Lawyers

Employment Discrimination Overview
Are You the Victim of Workplace Discrimination?

Employment discrimination is illegal and should not be accepted, even by “at will” employees. Indeed, under both state and federal law, employees have a statutory right to sue and recover damages for employment discrimination and wrongful termination, whether they are “at will” employees or not. Even though the general rule of “at will” employment is that an employee may be fired for any or no reason, with or without notice, the anti-discrimination statutes provide one of the exceptions to that general rule. The relevant statutes for New Jersey and New York employees are the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, the New York Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Equal Pay Act, among others.

Discrimination is actionable only if it is based on your membership in a legally protected category, such as race, ag e, gender, pregnancy, mental or physical disability, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, or veteran or military status. If you have experienced any of the following based on your membership in an above-mentioned group, you may have a discrimination claim:

You were fired, laid off, or otherwise wrongfully discharged
Your position was eliminated in a reduction in force
You were demoted
You were not hired
You are underpaid compared to your peers
You were harassed
You were forced to resign (also referred to as a “constructive discharge”)
You were denied a reasonable accommodation for a mental or physical disability
You experienced another adverse employment action

Unfortunately, employers are not legally required to treat their employees fairly. For example, it is not necessarily unlawful if an employer makes an employment decision based on favoritism, nepotism, friendship, or “office politics.” Unfair treatment is only legally actionable discrimination if it is due to your race, age, gender, pregnancy, mental or physical disability, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, or another legally prohibited reason. Similarly, harassment — which is a form of discrimination — must be based on membership in a legally protected category in order to be actionable.

Courts have stated that the purpose of employment discrimination statutes is to eradicate the cancer of discrimination in the workplace. We, at the Pagliara Law Group, are committed to helping our clients do exactly that.

If you have been the victim of any of the following forms of workplace discrimination in New Jersey, contact one of our experienced employment discrimination lawyers: