Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the prominent anti-discrimination law, prohibits an employer with fifteen or more employees from refusing to hire, discipline, fire, deny training, fail to promote, pay less or demote, or harass an employee on the basis of race, national origin, gender, or religion. The federal Equal Pay Act requires any employer that is already subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act to provide equal pay to men and women who perform “equal work,” unless the difference in pay is caused by differences in seniority, merit or some other factor that is not based upon sex. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits discrimination against employees or applicants who are over the age of forty, by any employer with twenty or more employees. The Immigration Reform and Control Act bars any employer with more than three employees from discriminating against a U.S. citizen, or an “intended citizen”(such as one who may work legally but is not yet a citizen) on the basis of his or her national origin.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act bar discrimination against those who are disabled. The ADA bars discrimination by private employers with more than fifteen employees and the Rehabilitation Act applies to all government entities and federal contractors.

The ADA only applies to persons who meet the definition of “disabled” under the Act. A person is considered disabled, and so protected under the ADA, if he or she either actually has, or is thought to have, a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits what the ADA calls a “major life activity.” Major life activities include walking, talking, seeing, and learning. If an employee has impairment that substantially limits his or her ability to perform one or more of these activities, the employee is considered disabled under the ADA.

The essence of sex discrimination is unequal treatment on the basis of sex. The treatment must not simply be different, but also unequal, and therefore unfair. For example, requiring women and men to use separate restrooms does not constitute sex discrimination. But it is sex discrimination to provide different working conditions, salaries, hiring, promotion or bonus criteria to women and men. A unique form of sex discrimination is sexual harassment.

Racial discrimination is the illegal treatment of an employee or applicant differently because of his or her race or color. In addition to prohibiting discrimination, laws also prohibit harassment based on race or color. Harassment includes racial slurs, racial jokes, offensive remarks based on race, offensive comments based on race, drawings or pictures that portray people of a certain race in an unfavorable light, threats, intimidation, hostile demeanor, or physical violence.

In the federal context, sexual harassment is considered to be a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.”

Depending upon the circumstances prevailing at work place, sexual harassment at workplace can be categorized in to two classes. Quid Pro Quo harassment is the sexual harassment involving mutual favors mostly requested by some superior in lieu of some employment benefits to the employee. This occurs when a supervisor or one in an authority position requests sex, or a sexual relationship, in exchange for not firing or otherwise punishing the employee, or in exchange for favors, such as promotions or raises. The second category is hostile work environment. This involves sexual harassment that occurs through the presence of demeaning or sexual photographs, jokes or threats. In this type of harassment, the inappropriate behavior or conduct must be so pervasive as to create an intimidating and offensive work environment.

In 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) issued regulations defining sexual harassment and stating it was a form of sex discrimination prohibited by the Civil Rights Act, which had been originally passed in 1964. In1986, the U.S. Supreme Court first ruled that sexual harassment was a form of job discrimination and held it to be illegal. Today, most states have their own fair employment practices laws that prohibit sexual harassment and many of them are stricter than the federal law.