Sex or gender discrimination occurs when an employer treats an employee or prospective employee differently solely because the individual is a woman or a man. The law against sex or gender discrimination covers a number of issues that employees may face in the workplace, such as sexual harassment, difficulties with equal pay, the existence of a "glass ceiling" that prevents women from reaching the highest level positions in a company, pregnancy discrimination and marital or parental status discrimination.

The law requires that all males and females be treated equally. This means that males and females in the workplace should be subject to the same policies, standards and practices in all phases of the employment process, including recruiting, hiring, firing, placement, promotion, advancement or work opportunity, job training, job assignment, working conditions, compensation, benefits, layoffs and other terms, conditions or privileges of employment.

The law prohibits an employer from making decisions based upon stereotypes, presumptions about abilities, traits or the performance of individuals on the basis of sex or gender. Although the terms "sex" and "gender" are often interchangeable, "sex" discrimination refers to discrimination based on an individual’s biological identity as male or female while "gender" discrimination refers to discrimination based on characteristics of an individual that are culturally associated with masculinity or femininity. The law forbids employers from discriminating against individuals based on sex, gender or both.

A few examples of possible sex or gender discrimination include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:

• Your employer provides benefits to the wives and families of male employees but the same benefits are not available to the husbands and families of female employees.
• Your employer refuses to hire you or to promote you because, as a woman, you are not as tough as a man or because, as a man, you are not considered as sensitive as a woman.
• Your employer gives you above average reviews, but you are frequently passed over for promotions that are filled by less qualified and less senior individuals of the opposite sex.
• Your employer is stricter with you and other coworkers of the same sex as you than he/she is with coworkers of the opposite sex.
• Members of the opposite sex are paid more than you and other coworkers of the same sex as you.
• Company policies that seem neutral are actually not because they have the effect of excluding individuals on the basis of sex.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires that men and women be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. The jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal. It is job content, not job titles, that determines whether jobs are substantially equal. If you discover that you are not being paid the same as a coworker of the opposite sex who does substantially the same job as you, and there is no legitimate business reason for the difference in pay, then you may have a sex discrimination claim under the Equal Pay Act.

Equal pay encompasses all forms of compensation including, but not limited to, salary, benefits, overtime pay, bonuses, stock options, incentive restricted stock plans, expense allowances and reimbursement.

The Glass Ceiling

The "glass ceiling" refers to an invisible barrier that exists in a workplace that prevents qualified women from advancing into top management positions solely because of their sex. For example, women can only climb so far on the corporate ladder before they hit a glass ceiling that blocks them from moving forward. If women cannot arise above a certain position, then they are being discriminated against in promotion and hiring. If you feel that you have been discriminated against because of a "glass ceiling" at your company, you may be able to bring a claim under Federal, State and/or local laws for sex discrimination.

Marital Status and/or Parental Status Discrimination

Marital status and/or parental status discrimination are considered forms of sex or gender discrimination. Assumptions and stereotypes about gender identity generally motivate discriminatory acts based on marital and/or parental status.

New York law prohibits employers from treating employees differently because of their status as single or married, or because of their status as parents in all phases of employment including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, firing, training, advancement, compensation, benefits and other terms or privileges of employment.

A few examples of marital status or parental status discrimination include, but are not limited to, the following:

• You are not hired because you are a woman with young children, but a man with young children is hired.
• Your employer refuses to train, promote or assign significant work opportunities to married women while giving such training, promotion and work opportunities to married men and/or single employees.