As an employer, you must give all prospective employees an equal opportunity to get the job based on their skills, abilities and experience. Discriminating against them if they are in protected classes is illegal.
You are likely already aware of this, as most business owners will not overtly discriminate. A company isn’t going to put up a job notice saying that they are looking for new workers but are actively excluding a major religion. It would be a clear example of religious discrimination. Likewise, a company isn’t going to advertise that it will only hire men, which would be sex discrimination against female workers.
However, accidental discrimination can sometimes occur, so it’s a good idea to think about the impact your decisions can have on these protected classes.
Examples of age discrimination
One way that this happens is when employers post job notices that may imply a certain level of age discrimination.
For instance, perhaps a company says that they want to hire current college students for a part-time role. Technically, someone in their 50s could certainly still be in college or could have gone back to school. But it’s vastly more likely that the company means they want to hire people in their early 20s. Even though they haven’t specifically mentioned age, this could make workers who are over 40 feel like they shouldn’t apply for the job or aren’t being fairly considered.
It’s important to understand how this happens so that you can avoid these issues at your company. If you do find yourself facing a dispute or discrimination allegations, though, you also need to know what legal steps to take.