When You Should Hire a Gender Discrimination Attorney

Several state and federal laws make it explicitly illegal to discriminate against employees who belong to a protected class. Discrimination includes any unfair treatment or harassment at work based on someone’s ethnicity or race, national origin, religion, age, disability status, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you experience gender discrimination at work, you may wish to pursue legal action against your employer. Learn how a gender discrimination attorney can make employers pay up for violating your rights at work below.

Hiring Representation for Gender Discrimination Claims: Key Takeaways

• Discrimination can affect any employee working in any job, but finding direct evidence of bias that easily proves your case is rare.
• Federal law protects workers from discriminatory behavior by employers and co-workers in businesses with at least 15 employees. However, state and local laws may provide broader protections for smaller groups of protected class members under Title VII.
• No gender discrimination case is valid unless you report the incident to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 6 months.
• It takes about 11 months for the EEOC to investigate and resolve discrimination charges filed against employers, based on 2023 data.
• You’re nearly 15x more likely to get a cash settlement if you work with a gender discrimination lawyer (i.e., 4% chance of winning on your vs. 63% with legal representation).
• Because employment claims are so complex, it’s crucial to consult a lawyer immediately if you think you experienced illegal discrimination at work.

What Is Gender Discrimination in the Workplace?

Gender or sex discrimination at work involves the unfair treatment of employees based on their sex, gender identity, or pregnancy status. Here are some things you can sue your employer for if you feel you were treated differently simply because of your gender, sexual orientation, or identity:

• Discriminatory hiring and firing practices (i.e., only hiring men for certain jobs or firing pregnant women without cause, for example)
• Paying men and women a different salary or hourly rate for performing substantially similar work or having the same job duties, title, and educational background
• Giving preferential job assignments to employees based on gender alone
• Setting employment conditions that repeatedly favor one gender over another, even if unintentional
• Including gender stereotypes in company training materials or refusing to train workers based on their gender identity or sexual orientation
• Showing gender bias when promoting employees or conducting company layoffs
• Offering different benefit packages for male and female employees with equal work duties or identical job titles

It can also come in the form of sexual harassment, regardless of the alleged perpetrator and victim’s respective genders.

Who is Protected from Workplace Gender Discrimination?

Federal laws apply to all employers with at least 15 employees working for 20 or more weeks in the current or prior calendar year. Protections afforded under federal anti-discrimination laws apply equally to male and female employees starting on day one of employment.

Find the federal law that best applies to your specific situation from the list below. Then, be sure to ask your gender discrimination attorney about any state or local laws that may also influence your case. This is because many states have broader protections in place for residents who live and work there.

In California, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) makes it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation. And that state law applies to any employer with at least five employees, not 15, for example.

Federal and state whistleblower laws also protect workers from employer retaliation for reporting illegal discrimination at work.

Which Laws Protect Workers from Sex Discrimination on the Job?

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Title VII of this federal law prohibits employers from discriminating against workers based on their sex or gender identity. And a June 2020 Supreme Court ruling extends protections under Title VII to workers who identify as gay or transgender. The EEOC enforces this federal labor law in all 50 U.S. states.

Equal Pay Act of 1963

The 1963 EPA enforces equal pay for doing equal work across all genders. According to the EPA, “equal pay” covers not just base salary or hourly pay rate, but also includes bonuses, overtime, benefits, and stock options.

If the EEOC finds your employer violated the Equal Pay Act, the business must increase lower pay rates to reduce wage disparity.

Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978

The 1978 PDA makes it illegal for employers to treat employees unfavorably based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

More recently, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2023 required covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to workers during pregnancy.

What Evidence Can Help You Prove Gender Discrimination in a Court of Law?

To prove discrimination at work based on gender, you must provide enough evidence to prove these four specific things:

1. You belong to a protected class.
2. You’re qualified for the job position you held at the time of the incident.
3. You suffered an adverse employment action (meaning you were treated unfairly compared to other employees based on your gender or sexual identity).
4. The defendant (your employer) treated other, similar employees more favorably that don’t belong to your protected class.

Gathering the right evidence is key for supporting your claim of discriminatory behavior at work. Below are some examples that your gender discrimination attorney or mediator will want to review during the claim resolution process.

Direct Evidence

Direct evidence is most effective when it shows a clear link between the discriminatory behavior or action and negative job outcome. Examples of direct evidence that helps prove explicit gender discrimination cases may include:

• Written notes and other documented internal communications (i.e., emails, memos, Teams or Slack channel messages, etc.)
• Annual performance reviews
• Witness statements
• Physical evidence showing proof of a hostile work environment (i.e., calendars featuring sexually suggestive images allowed on office desks)
• Explicitly discriminatory practices or company policies, whether they are informal or formal

Circumstantial Evidence

When you must rely on a pattern of behavior to infer illegal discrimination, it’s called circumstantial evidence. And while it’s far more common in legal action against employers, indirect evidence takes significant time and effort to produce.

Here are just a few examples of circumstantial evidence that may help your case:

• Suspicious timing of adverse actions (i.e., the company terminates a woman with excellent previous job reviews, but retains male co-workers with worse performance records)
• Statistical patterns of discriminatory behavior (i.e., promoting only married straight employees, laying off only women, etc.)
• Inconsistent reasoning or lack of documentation (i.e., giving multiple explanations for firing someone that don’t make logical sense or terminating an employee with zero warnings or write-ups)
• Remarks or statements made by supervisors, HR, or company leadership that either encourage or excuse acts of discrimination in the workplace (often waved away as “jokes” or “off-hand comments”)
• Comparative evidence showing disparate treatment compared to colleagues of a different gender (i.e., insisting that all female employees must wear makeup and heels in the office or get sent home for the day for being “unprofessional”)

Steps to Take After Experiencing Gender Discrimination or Sexual Harassment at Work

As you can see below, the timeline for successfully resolving discrimination charges against an employer moves fast. That’s why it’s in your best interest to consult a gender discrimination attorney as soon as possible.

Step 1: Prove you belong to a protected class

Your first step for a successful employment claim is establishing that you are a member of a protected class. According to federal laws that govern workplace discrimination, “protected class” simply means proving your gender identity, sexual orientation, or some combination thereof.

Step 2: Review your employer’s discrimination policies

Since state and local laws may apply to your claim. For this reason, your employer may have policies or a process in place for handling employee complaints. If so, make a copy of that policy to include with your discrimination claim paperwork.

Step 3: Document everything

You need to show you received unfair treatment or negative job consequences that didn’t affect other employees. For example: Did your boss offer you a promotion in exchange for a dinner date with him? Or did the CEO replace you with someone of the opposite gender who’s much less qualified, but earns more? Be sure to include dates, times, names and contact info for witnesses, etc.

Step 4: Report the incident to your Human Resources manager or supervisor in writing

Be sure to keep a copy of any forms you sign or documents you provide during this step for your own records. Make sure to include the names, dates, and locations of each incident, along with any witness names and contact information.

Step 5: File a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 180 days

In other words, you cannot sue your employer for workplace gender discrimination unless you do this first. This is called filing a “Charge of Discrimination” complaint.

Important: For hostile work environment claims, you generally must file a complaint with the EEOC within 300 days. Learn more about hostile work environment claims.

Step 6: If the EEOC finds evidence that supports your discrimination charge, you’ll get a Letter of Determination

This letter typically offers to help you and your employer resolve the issue through mediation. If successful, it may lead to an out-of-court settlement or other legal remedies after both parties sign off. However, if mediation fails, you may then receive EEOC clearance to sue your employer.

Step 7: Receive EEOC’s Notice of Right to Sue letter letting you file a lawsuit against your employer within 90 days

This is when things rapidly accelerate, and you can’t really take further action without an attorney.

Benefits of Hiring a Gender Discrimination Attorney

Here are some good reasons to consider securing representation for your gender discrimination case:

1. Industry data shows that a judge will dismiss 40% of workplace discrimination claims filed without an attorney. By contrast, courts dismiss just 11% of claims filed by lawyers involving discrimination in the workplace.
2. Federal court statistics show just 4% of employees who sue an employer for discrimination without an attorney’s help win at trial.
3. Less than 1 in 4 pro se employment cases win a settlement vs. 63% of claims with lawyers. (Pro se simply means you choose to represent the claim by yourself vs. working with an employment lawyer.)
4. You’ll potentially receive both economic and non-economic damages to pay for things like emotional distress and lost wages. Taking your claim to small claims court without a lawyer limits your payout to $10,000 or less in all but six U.S. states.

What is the Average Settlement for a Gender Discrimination Case?

The EEOC’s Fiscal Year 2024 Report shows an average $33,333 cash settlement for every successful employment claim that year. We arrived at this figure by dividing the total monetary relief secured that year ($700 million) by the number of settled claims.

However, payouts to settle claims that prove discrimination based on gender can vary widely, with some reaching six figures:

• The Walt Disney Company paid $43.3 million in November 2024 to settle gender discrimination claims involving Equal Pay Act violations against female employees.
• Riot Games settled a gender pay discrimination case in 2023 for $100 million, averaging $64,500 per claimant.
• Goldman Sachs paid $215 million in May 2023 to settle a class action lawsuit from 2,800 female employees. The women were able to prove gender discrimination involving pay amounts, performance evaluations, and promotions, paying each victim $76,785.71.

LegalASAP Can Match You With Nearby Attorneys Who Specialize in Filing Discrimination Claims

If you experienced harassment based on gender, sexual orientation or identity at work, we want to help you. Let us put you in touch with a gender discrimination attorney near you for a free, no-obligation consultation. During your free consultation, you can ask important questions like:

• How likely am I to win my case against this particular employer?
• What is the contingency fee percentage for cases like mine if I choose to take legal action?
• If I don’t win my case, are there any other fees or a retainer I need to worry about paying you for?
• How long does it usually take to resolve an employment law claim like mine?
• How many gender discrimination, harassment, or unequal pay cases against employers did you win during the past decade?

Workplace gender discrimination can take on many forms, including being fired, demoted, harassed, or denied equal pay or promotions. If you choose to work with an attorney, we recommend hiring someone who:

• Responds in a timely manner to your questions and provides you with regular case updates.
• Shows empathy and concern when discussing your case.
• Can easily explain things to you using simple language, not “legalese.”

LegalASAP partners with hundreds of law firms nationwide to provide quick, free, and easy consultations. Every employment law attorney works on contingency. This means you pay $0 in legal fees if you don’t win your case.

To see if you may qualify for a free evaluation with a gender discrimination attorney, click the button below now:

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