Employment Discrimination:
Have you been treated differently based on your race, age, disability, sex/pregnancy, sexual orientation or other immutable characteristic? It is illegal for your employer to take any adverse actions (termination, demotion, reduction of pay, denial of overtime, etc.) against you on account of your age, race, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, disability,marital and familial status and prior convictions (among other attributes). Discrimination in employment is often difficult to prove, as employers are rarely forthcoming about their biases. For this reason, courts consider circumstantial as well as overt evidence of discrimination. Further, in New York most employees are considered “at-will” employees. That means that any employee can be terminated any time for any reason, or no reason at all. It is the employee’s burden to prove that he or she was terminated for an unlawful reason (that is, discrimination based on protected status). |