The summaries below explain federal and Minnesota employment laws in everyday language. They are general information only, not legal advice. Every situation is different. If you believe your rights have been violated, talk to an employment attorney about the facts of your case.
Title VII and the Minnesota Human Rights Act
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the broadest federal law against job discrimination. It prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It covers hiring, firing, pay, promotions, training, job assignments, benefits, and layoffs. It protects employees — not independent contractors — and courts have generally held that it protects undocumented workers too.
Title VII also prohibits harassment based on a protected trait, and it forbids retaliating against anyone who complains about discrimination or participates in an investigation or lawsuit.
The Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) is Minnesota's state anti-discrimination law, and it protects more groups than federal law does. The MHRA prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, familial status, membership or activity in a local human rights commission, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and age. It applies to employers, labor unions, and employment agencies. An employer cannot use an employment agency to do indirectly what it could not do directly.
The MHRA also makes several related actions illegal:
Aiding and abetting. A person — including an individual manager — who knowingly helps someone else discriminate can be personally liable, if they gave substantial assistance or encouragement to conduct they knew violated the law.
Reprisal (retaliation). It is illegal to punish an employee for complaining about discrimination, filing a charge, helping in an investigation, or associating with people of a different race, religion, or with people who have disabilities. Retaliation can include firing, demotion, transfer to a worse position, or even bad-mouthing a former employee to a new employer. You do not have to prove the conduct you complained about was actually illegal — only that you honestly and reasonably believed it was. Even small acts of retaliation can add up to a violation when viewed together.
Constructive discharge. Sometimes an employee is not fired but is instead forced out. If working conditions become so intolerable due to illegal discrimination that a reasonable person would quit, the law may treat the resignation as a firing. The Minnesota Supreme Court has held that an employee does not have to try to fix the mistreatment before resigning, and that a performance improvement plan can be evidence of constructive discharge if it "sets the employee up for failure."
Retaliation under federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court has said the test is whether the employer's action would discourage a reasonable worker from complaining about discrimination. The action does not have to be a firing — even a suspension later reversed with back pay can qualify. Title VII protects employees who answer questions in an internal investigation, protects former employees from retaliatory bad references, and in some cases protects people close to the complaining employee (for example, an employee fired because his fiancée filed a discrimination charge). For retaliation claims, the employee must prove the retaliation was the deciding reason — the "but-for" cause — of the employer's action.
Race and Color Discrimination
Race and color discrimination are prohibited by Title VII and by the Minnesota Human Rights Act. That includes unequal treatment in hiring, firing, pay, promotion, job assignments, and other terms of employment, as well as racially hostile work environments. Courts have also treated ethnicity as part of race protections in many cases. Minnesota’s CROWN Act further makes clear that discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race — such as braids, locs, and twists — is unlawful under the MHRA.
Learn more about race discrimination.
Sex and Gender Discrimination
Title VII, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Equal Pay Act, and the Minnesota Human Rights Act all prohibit discrimination because of sex. Both women and men are protected. That covers sex stereotyping, unequal pay for substantially equal work, and pregnancy and related medical conditions. Minnesota law also requires reasonable pregnancy accommodations and protections for nursing mothers that often go beyond federal law.
Learn more about sex and gender discrimination, or see our page on pregnancy discrimination and accommodations.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination under both Title VII and the MHRA. It includes quid pro quo demands — when a supervisor ties job benefits or threats to sexual favors — and hostile work environment harassment, where unwelcome sexual or gender-based conduct is severe or pervasive enough to alter working conditions. Employers can be liable for harassment by supervisors, coworkers, and sometimes customers or other non-employees, depending on what they knew and what they did about it.
Learn more about sexual harassment.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination
Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Title VII’s ban on sex discrimination covers firing someone for being gay or transgender. Minnesota law already prohibited sexual orientation discrimination and now also expressly protects gender identity under the MHRA. Same-sex harassment claims are recognized under both federal and Minnesota law.
Learn more about sexual orientation and gender identity protections.
Religious Discrimination
Title VII and the MHRA prohibit discrimination based on religion in hiring, firing, pay, promotion, and other employment decisions. Federal law defines religion broadly to include sincerely held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. Employers must also reasonably accommodate religious practices — such as schedule changes, religious dress or grooming, or time off for observance — unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. Minnesota law likewise restricts religious discrimination and, in many situations, supports a duty to accommodate.
Learn more about religious discrimination and accommodation.
Age Discrimination
The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) protects workers age 40 and older from age-based decisions in hiring, firing, pay, and other terms of employment, and generally applies to employers with 20 or more employees. The Minnesota Human Rights Act also bans age discrimination and is broader in important ways: Minnesota protection is not limited to workers 40 and older, and Minnesota courts have recognized that younger workers can be protected from policies that favor older ones.
Learn more about age discrimination under the ADEA and MHRA.
Disability Discrimination
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Minnesota Human Rights Act prohibit discrimination against qualified workers because of a disability. These laws also require reasonable accommodations — changes to the job or workplace that enable an employee to perform essential duties — unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship. Coverage can include current impairments, a record of impairment, or being “regarded as” disabled, and Minnesota’s standard for what counts as a disability is often easier to meet than the federal standard.
Learn more about disability discrimination, the ADA, and reasonable accommodations.
National Origin Discrimination
Title VII and the MHRA both prohibit discrimination based on national origin — including a person’s ancestry, birthplace, culture, or linguistic characteristics. That can cover accent-based mistreatment, English-only rules that are not justified by business needs, and unfavorable treatment because of association with people of a particular national origin. Harassment based on national origin is also unlawful when it is severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment.
Marital and Familial Status Discrimination
Minnesota’s Human Rights Act protects employees based on marital status — whether single, married, remarried, divorced, separated, or widowed — and based on who a spouse is or what a spouse does. The MHRA also prohibits discrimination because of familial status, including having or caring for children. Federal law does not generally include these protections, so for many Minnesota workers the MHRA is the primary source of these rights.
Learn more about marital and familial status discrimination.
These summaries reflect the law as described in current legal reference materials and are provided for general education. Laws change, deadlines are strict, and small facts can make a big difference. If you have questions about your specific situation, begin a free case evaluation to discuss your situation.