New York City Employment Discrimination Attorney
“Regardless of who you are, you should be afforded protection from any workplace discrimination.”
When you go to work each day, the last thing you should ever have to worry about is facing a discriminatory environment. Regardless of who you are, you should be afforded protection from any workplace discrimination. Discrimination takes all sorts of forms, from being paid less for your work than your peers, to getting passed over for promotions or pay raises, to getting called demeaning names, to other more invasive forms of harassment. Ms. Ambats is ready to be your advocate against improper discriminatory practices.
If you need a New York City employment discrimination attorney, you can count on the Law Office of Rachel Ambats, PLLC to be by your side. Ms. Ambats will work with you to ensure that you never suffer discrimination at the hands of your employer again.
What is Workplace Discrimination?
When people think of discrimination in the workplace, they often only consider race and gender. However, those are not the only types of discrimination there are. If you look at both federal and state law, you will find that nearly all types of discrimination are prohibited in the workplace. Today, we want to look at some statistics from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, focusing on a few types of discrimination in particular:
Disability: The Amended Americans with Disabilities Act of 2009 (AADA), as well as other local and state law, provide protection for individual who are challenged by some form of disability. Federal and state law prohibits the discrimination of a qualified employee or applicant based on an “actual or perceived disability.” Legal protections extend to decisions based on hiring, firing, pay, promotions, job assignments, layoffs, training, and any other terms or conditions of employment. There were over 24,500 disability-based charges brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2018. Disability discrimination laws provide protection for employees, as well as applicants for employment, who experience cancer, mental illness, a learning disability, hearing loss or visual impairments, among other disabling conditions. Hearing loss in particular can have significant effects on an individual’s ability to obtain and maintain employment because of the stereotype of an individual’s ability to function with this condition. If an employee is temporarily unable to perform her job due to pregnancy or childbirth, an employer must treat her just as they would treat a temporarily disabled employee.
Age: This type of discrimination involved treating an applicant or an employee differently because of their age. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prevents discrimination against anyone over the age of 40. The EEOC brought nearly 17,000 age-related charges in 2018.
Race: Racial discrimination has no place in the American workforce. However, we know that it still happens. According to the EEOC, racial discrimination includes discrimination based on ancestry or physical or cultural characteristics associated with a certain race, such as skin color, hair texture or styles, or certain facial features. Opportunities for hiring and advancement are often kept from those being discriminated because of their race. We know that 24,600 charges of racial discrimination were brought against employers by the EEOC in 2018.
Sexual Discrimination and harassment: Around 27% of American adult women have reported being sexually harassed in the workplace but that only 74% of people say their employers take sexual harassment seriously. In the age of the “Me Too” movement, more and more people are bringing these allegations to light and holding perpetrators responsible. Adverse treatment at work because of gender can occur whether you are a man or a woman. More than 24,660 charges of sex-based discrimination were filed by the EEOC in 2018.
Retaliation: An employer may seek to punish an employee for speaking out about workplace issues and other matters. The law is clear that an employee cannot be fired, demoted, harassed or discriminated against because the employee has made a complaint, caused an investigation or testified as a witness in court or in other proceedings involving the employer.
Any type of workplace discrimination is humiliating and creates a hostile work environment. With help from a skilled attorney, you can file a complaint with the appropriate New York State or New York City Commission or pursue a lawsuit.
What we can do to help you now
If you have experienced discrimination in your workplace, you need to seek legal assistance as soon as possible. At the Law Office of Rachel Ambats, PLLC, you can count on having a qualified and experienced attorney by your side to help ensure you are treated fairly. We will get to the bottom of what happened so we can secure the compensation you deserve. This can include:
back pay
reinstatement (if you have been terminated)
promotion if it is due
legal fees and court costs
pain and suffering damages
punitive damages
If you need a New York City employment discrimination lawyer, contact us for a free consultation.