Marital Status Discrimination

In both New Jersey and New York, the law prohibits discrimination on the basis of your marital status. That means your employer cannot use the fact that you are married, single, divorced or widowed as a basis to fire you, demote you, pass you up for a promotion, or otherwise discriminate against you. Similarly, if you apply for a new job, it is illegal for the employer to decide to hire someone else because of your marital status.

Marital status discrimination often is based on stereotypes. For example, when making hiring decisions and work assignments, a supervisor might assume a single parent will not work as hard, will be less dependable, or will be less available to work overtime than another employee who is married. However, this is improper since stereotypes frequently are inaccurate and certainly do not apply to everyone in a particular group. It can be a violation of your employment law rights if your boss makes a decision about you based on an incorrect assumption based on your marital status.

Similarly, it is unlawful for a company to refuse to hire you because you are living with a romantic partner to whom you are not married. Although your boss might believe you are “living in sin,” the fact that you are not legally married to the person with whom you are living rarely, if ever, has anything to do with your qualifications for the job. It certainly should not be the basis for employment decisions.

If you have experienced this form of discrimination at your job, the New Jersey marital discrimination attorneys at Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg can help. Our telephone number is (201) 777-2250.

Marital status discrimination claims often are related to gender or sexual orientation discrimination claims. For example, a company might make certain assumptions about a single or divorced woman that it never would make about a single or divorced man, or vice versa. Similarly, an employer might treat gay, lesbian or transexual employees who get married very differently from how it treats heterosexual employees who get married. Whether it is classified as gender discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, or marital status discrimination, each of these types of discrimination are unlawful in New Jersey and New York.

New Jersey and New York City law not only prohibit discrimination based on your marital status, but they also prohibit domestic partnership status discrimination. In addition, New Jersey law prohibits companies from discriminating against employees based on their civil union status. That means employers in New Jersey, Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island cannot discriminate against employees or job candidates because they are (or are not) in a same-sex domestic partnership. Likewise, it means that employers in New Jersey cannot discriminate against employees because they are in a civil union.

The New Jersey marital status discrimination lawyers at Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg, P.C. are dedicated to representing employees in all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment cases, including when it is based on marital status, domestic partnership status or civil union status.

We invite you to contact us online, or to call us at (201) 777-2250, to learn more about how we can help enforce your rights in the workplace.

From our office in Bergen County, New Jersey, we represent individuals throughout New Jersey, as well as in New York City, and Rockland and Westchester County, New York.

To learn more about your legal rights, please visit our New Jersey Employment Law Blog.

In addition, you may be interested in reading one of the following articles written by our New Jersey marital status discrimination attorneys:

• Employers Can't Fire Employees Based on Stereotypes About Divorce
• Discrimination Because of Pending Divorce Violates New Jersey Law
• Catholic School Did Not Violate Law Against Discrimination by Firing Unmarried Employee When She Got Pregnant