Workplace Discrimination Occurs when an employee experiences unfavorable or unfair treatment because of his or her race, religion, national origin, disabled or veteran status, or other characteristics protected by law . Employees who have suffered retaliation for opposing discrimination at work or for reporting violations to the authorities are also considered discriminated against. Federal law prohibits discrimination in employment-related areas, such as recruiting, hiring, job evaluations, promotion policies, training, compensation and disciplinary actions. (employeeissues.com, 2006) Aside from the obvious, unfair treatment does not always equate to illegal discrimination. Treating a person differently from others violates equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws only when the treatment is based on the presence of a protected characteristic, rather than job performance or even something arbitrary like an employee's personality. Claims of discrimination can sometimes be highly subjective. (employeeissues.com, 2006) It is best to avoid charges of discrimination by following the law which only requires you to extend the same employment opportunities and apply the same policies to each employee. DISCRIMINATION LAWS Discrimination laws exist to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability and age by employers. The main discriminatory practices identified today are bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, firing, compensation and various types of harassment. The following paragraphs describe the most common anti-discrimination laws today. (allbusiness.com, 2006) The Equal Pay Act amended the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1963. The Equal Pay Act only prohibits pay... middle of the paper... unequal pay, sexual harassment, l seniority and maternity leave. The anti-discrimination laws that exist today and the cases that succeed because of them create the understanding that no employer will go unscathed if a discrimination lawsuit is filed. (Jennings, 2006) References AllBusiness.com. (2006). Understanding discrimination in the workplace. All corporate human resources: work, health and safety. Cornell Law. (2006). Discrimination at work. Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute.EEOC. (2006). Discrimination by type. Commission.EmployeeIssues.com for Equal Employment Opportunity in the United States. (2006). Discrimination. Employee issues. Human rights campaign. (2006). GLBT issues in the workplace. Workplace Discrimination HRC. Jennings, Marianne. (2006). Business: Its legal, ethical and global environment. USA: Thomas/Southwestern Publications.