Yonkers Employment Discrimination Attorney

Employment Attorneys Representing People in the Yonkers Area

Yonkers has large communities of Irish Americans and Italian Americans. Notable people from Yonkers have included Mary J. Blige, William F. Bleakley, Ella Fitzgerald, Ron Garan, Erik Palladino, and Patrick Quinlan. Some employers discriminate against workers based on their preconceived ideas about certain groups. If you are applying for a job or working in hopes of promotion and job advancement, you likely trust that you will be evaluated based on your performance and merit. If you suspect that you have faced employment discrimination based on a characteristic protected under federal or state laws, you should consult the tenacious Yonkers employment discrimination lawyers at Phillips & Associates. We handle lawsuits arising out of a wide range of protected characteristics, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, disability, criminal convictions, age, race or color, national origin, and religion.

Bringing an Employment Discrimination Claim Under Federal or State Law

The federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces all of these. If you wish to file a lawsuit under federal law, you must first file a charge with the EEOC within a narrow time window. Generally, federal laws only apply to medium-sized or large companies. People who work for smaller companies in Yonkers receive greater protection under state laws.

The New York State Human Rights Law prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of an employee's sex, race, national origin, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, disability, age (18 and up), genetic characteristics, familial or marital status, prior arrests, prior convictions, political activities, military status, and domestic violence victim status. This law applies to employers that have a minimum of four employees. However, with regard to sexual harassment, it applies to every workplace, even those with just one employee. Our employment discrimination attorneys are ready to help Yonkers employees fight back against these types of misconduct.

Employment discrimination occurs whenever companies or businesses take an adverse employment action against an employee due to a protected characteristic, such as race or sex, instead of the employee's past performance, resume, or merits. For example, if you are not promoted to a customer-facing position because you wear a hijab, this may be religious or nationality discrimination. For another example, if you were not hired because you are pregnant, this would be pregnancy discrimination. Other employment actions can involve hiring, firing, layoffs, bonuses, and any other term or condition of employment.

Employment discrimination can include harassment based on a protected characteristic as well. For example, if you are black and receive emails in which your coworkers call you the n-word and send you memes that demean black people, while your employer takes no steps to correct the situation once notified, this is racial harassment. If your supervisor makes fun of your accent and calls you derogatory names because you are from a Middle Eastern country, this is national origin harassment.

Our Yonkers employment discrimination attorneys know that it can be intimidating to complain about discrimination or harassment. You may fear that your employer will try to punish you for speaking up against discrimination or harassment, and this is a legitimate fear. However, it is illegal for your employer to retaliate against you for engaging in a protected activity. Protected activities under anti-discrimination laws include filing internal complaints, filing a charge with the EEOC, or filing a lawsuit.

Federal and state laws differ in the nature of the remedies that are available. Under Title VII and other laws enforced by the EEOC, your damages will be capped based on the size of your employer. For example, if your employer has 15-100 employees, the cap is $50,000. If your employer has 101-200 employees, the cap is $100,000. If your employer has 201-500 employees, the cap is $200,000. If your employer has 500+ employees, the cap is $300,000. There is no cap on damages, by contrast, if you file your claim under state law. However, you will not be able to recover punitive damages under the New York State Human Rights Law.

Seek Assistance from an Employment Discrimination Lawyer in Yonkers

At Phillips & Associates, our experienced attorneys help clients who have faced employment discrimination under federal or state law.

If you have suffered from mistreatment in the workplace, contact us at (866) 229-9441 or through our online form for a free case evaluation.