Several federal laws prohibit your employer from harassing you or discriminating against you in Texas as well as anywhere else in the United States. The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws have been put into place to make sure everyone has the same chance of being hired to a job and working in a safe environment regardless of race, gender, sex, national origin, color or disability.
Laws also protect your right to equal pay. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 protects men and women from wage discrimination when they are performing substantially similar work. That means that if you and someone else at your company are both doing the same job and have been doing the same job for the same amount of time, you should have similar or equal wages.
Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, which is known as GINA, has taken a step to make sure genetics won’t play a role in your application for a job. According to the act, you can’t be discriminated against based on genetic information about you. That means that if you have genetic disorders or the potential to develop one, you can’t be discriminated against.
All of these laws would mean little to nothing without punishments in place to make sure businesses abide by the rules. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 provides monetary damages in situations where you suffered from intentional employment discrimination. These laws are all enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which also oversees regulations, practices and policies regarding workplaces in the United States.
With so many rules in place, you never should have to suffer from discrimination. Sadly, you may still face difficulties at work, and if discrimination is one of them, you may be able to seek compensation for your trouble.
Source: EEOC.gov, “Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination Questions And Answers” accessed Jan. 28, 2015