Promotion discrimination is a serious offense. When an employer fails to promote someone as a result of their own biases, racism or discriminatory feelings, then they are violating the law. It is unfair to hold back certain people from promotions just because they look different or have a different background.
With any kind of workplace discrimination, it is possible to make a claim against an employer to correct the action. Unfortunately, discrimination can be tough to prove.
How can you build a case against an employer for employment discrimination?
The first thing you should do is start building your case for why you should have been promoted. Look at your history in the workplace, your qualification and training, your education and your ability to do the job. If that all lines up, then your background in the field shouldn’t be the issue.
Next, you’ll want to start gathering evidence about how the employer promotes. Are all of the managers currently male or female? Is there a specific age range where people seem to stop getting promotions?
After this, start collecting evidence of discrimination. For example, if you send your employer a question about why you didn’t get promoted and they send back, “We just wanted a little younger blood in the office,” then you might have proof of age discrimination. If they make a claim like, “Oh, that job needs a little more testosterone,” then that’s potentially proof of sex discrimination or harassment.
It’s a good idea to look at larger patterns at the company to see if your case is in line with what usually happens or not. For instance, if your management team and supervisors have transgender individuals, Black, Asian, White, male and female employees, then it’s unlikely that race or gender plays a role in moving people up. That doesn’t mean discrimination isn’t happening, but there may need to be stronger evidence to make your claim if it’s based on race, gender or both.
Your attorney will work closely with you to put together your case. The right evidence will go far in helping you prove that you’ve faced unfair discrimination.
