California Employment Discrimination Law
The federal tools for remedying employment discrimination including The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, The Americans with Disabilities Act and other well known federal statutes dealing with employment discrimination, and the federal agency that administers these federal laws, the EEOC, seem somewhat antiquated in California where employees have more expansive protections against employment discrimination under The Fair Employment and Housing Act, which is the California employment discrimination law.
California is always on the cutting edge of developments in the law of employment discrimination. California’s employment discrimination law gives employees broader protections from employment discrimination then does federal law. California law protects employees from employment discrimination on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, gender, age and sexual orientation. The protections under federal law encompass a lot of these same protections but the federal protections seem limited as concerns marital status, gender and sexual orientation discrimination.
Fortunately for California employees, our state has been able to adjust its employment discrimination laws to keep up with changes in the times. The wider range of damages available and the fact that the court has the discretion to award attorney’s fees to a prevailing plaintiff in an employment discrimination suit under the Fair Employment and Housing Act will ordinarily weigh in favor of proceeding against an employer under California law rather than under federal law to remedy employment discrimination occurring in California.
