Racial gaslighting rarely announces itself. It shows up as a nickname you never agreed to, a story about an incident that keeps shifting, work rules that seem to bend only when you’re the one following them, or a derogatory comment dropped once and then explained away as “just a joke.” Individually, any one of these
Many workers who face serious mistreatment at work are surprised to learn that the law may not protect them. Employment discrimination law in the United States and in Texas is built on a framework of employee thresholds, meaning that certain protections only apply once an employer reaches a minimum number of employees. If your employer
You did everything right. You reported the harassment. You documented the discrimination. You were denied the medical leave you were legally entitled to, or you were retaliated against for speaking up about discrimination. Now you are wondering what the law can actually do for you.
The honest answer is that the law can help, but
Summary: To bring a hostile work environment claim, an employee must show that the harassment was “severe or pervasive.” Those three words control whether your case moves forward or gets dismissed. But what do they actually mean? After more than thirty years of case law, courts still do not agree on where the line is.
Employees who experience discrimination or retaliation at work are often overwhelmed, confused, and unsure of what steps to take next. Which is totally understanding, this is an extremely stressful time in your life, going through something isolating and unknown. Many employees try to handle this internally, hope it resolves on its own, or wait until
Summary: Not every resignation is voluntary. When an employer makes working conditions so unbearable that a reasonable person would feel compelled to quit, the law may treat that resignation the same as a termination. This is called constructive discharge, and it could mean the difference between walking away with nothing and holding your employer accountable.
Summary: Courts have used the 50-year-old McDonnell Douglas framework to evaluate workplace discrimination and retaliation cases based on circumstantial evidence. Two Supreme Court Justices have called for it to be scrapped, and a new case in the Fifth Circuit could change how every discrimination lawsuit is litigated in Texas.
You gave a company years of
Employment Discrimination Is Still a Problem
Despite changing times, employment discrimination is more common than you think. Even the best employers might one day discriminate against one of their employees or job applicants because of who they are. Employment discrimination can take many forms. You might be treated unfairly because of your race, age, or
Earlier this year, on National Equal Pay Day, President Biden reminded the country that “women working full-time and year-round are paid an average of 84 cents for every dollar paid to men. In more than 90 percent of occupations, women earn less than men—and these disparities are even
Generally, an employer must take prompt remedial action upon its awareness of discrimination or harassment in the workplace. This general duty is applicable whether an employer has actual awareness or should be aware of the unlawful behavior taking place.
Sensibly, this means the employer should conduct an investigation to
