Скачать или смотреть Preemployment Inquiries

To avoid discrimination in hiring, it is essential that employers not ask questions that reveal the protected class characteristics of job candidates. Questions on application forms, during interviews, or in the course of informal chatting with job candidates can end up divulging information about employees that may taint the hiring process. First, employers should not directly inquire about protected class characteristics. For example, an application form should not ask the applicant to check “male” or “female” or “Mr.” or “Mrs./Ms.”

Similarly, asking candidates what their age is, where they were born (national origin), or whether they have a disability all constitute direct inquiries into protected class characteristics. Asking an interviewee about her pregnancy clearly constitutes direct inquiries about a protected class characteristic. Such information should not be sought prior to hiring because it can, consciously or not, affect employment decisions and result in disparate treatment.

Employers that need to track the protected class characteristics of their applicants for affirmative action purposes can do so by providing a voluntary reporting mechanism that is separate from the application form or other materials used in hiring. Second, and slightly less obvious, employers should not indirectly inquire about the protected class characteristics of job candidates. Examples of indirect inquiries include asking for an applicant’s date of graduation from high school (age) or for a listing of all organizational memberships (e.g., race, religion, and national origin).

If the employer wants to know whether someone has graduated from high school, for example, that is what should be asked, rather than when the person graduated. Third, employers should avoid questions about requirements or criteria that are not uniformly applied to job candidates. Applying different selection criteria to different protected class groups is disparate treatment. Preemployment inquiries constitute circumstantial evidence of discriminatory intent in disparate treatment cases.