The Glossary

The EEOC world is full of words that sound like a foreign language. Here they are in plain English. What each one means, and why it matters to your situation.

Adverse action

A real harm to your job, such as being fired, demoted, passed over for a promotion, cut in pay, or disciplined. It shows you were actually hurt, not only upset.

Charge of Discrimination

The formal, sworn complaint you file with the EEOC to start your case. It names your employer, marks what kind of discrimination you believe happened, and tells your story in your own words.

Charging Party

You. The person who files the charge of discrimination.

Comparator

Someone outside your protected class who did basically the same thing you did but was treated better. Same lateness, same mistake, different consequence. A comparator is one of the clearest signs of discrimination.

Constructive discharge

When conditions are made so unbearable that a reasonable person would feel forced to quit. In some cases it is treated like being fired.

Damages

What you may recover if your claim succeeds, such as lost pay and benefits, money for emotional harm, and in some cases more. A way of measuring the harm done.

Discrimination

Being treated worse at work because of a protected characteristic. Not every unfair thing counts. The trait has to be doing the work. If the same thing would have happened with the trait removed, it is unfair, but it may not be unlawful.

Disparate impact

A rule applied to everyone the same way that still ends up hurting mostly one group, such as a lifting requirement, a grooming policy, or a screening test. Same rule, lopsided result.

Disparate treatment

Being treated differently on purpose because of a protected characteristic. The everyday meaning of discrimination: they did it to you because of who you are.

EEOC

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The federal agency that handles workplace discrimination. It is where you file a charge, and it investigates, tries to settle, and can issue the paperwork you need to take your case to court.

Exhaustion

The rule that you generally have to file with the EEOC and let the agency process run first, before you can sue in court.

Filing deadline

The window to file your charge, counted from the discriminatory act. It is 180 days in some states and 300 in others, depending on whether the state has its own fair employment agency. Miss it, and the federal door can close. Use the deadline calculator to see where you stand.

Hostile work environment

Harassment tied to a protected characteristic that is severe, or happens so often it changes the conditions of your job. A single offhand comment usually is not enough. A pattern, or something serious, can be.

Joint employer

When two businesses share enough control over your work that both can be responsible, such as a staffing agency and the company where you actually worked. A charge can name both.

Mediation

A voluntary, informal meeting where a neutral person helps you and the employer try to settle the charge without a full investigation. Nothing is decided unless both sides agree.

Position statement

The employer's written response to your charge, laying out their side to the EEOC. You may get a chance to respond to it.

Pretext

A reason an employer gives that does not hold up. The story keeps changing, there is no paperwork behind it, or the stated reason is not the real one. A reason that falls apart under pressure can be hiding a different one.

Prima facie case

The starting set of facts you need to get a claim off the ground. Enough to suggest discrimination and turn the spotlight onto the employer to give a real reason for what it did.

Protected class

A personal characteristic the law says an employer cannot hold against you, such as race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age (40 and older), disability, and genetic information. For discrimination to be unlawful, the harm has to be tied to one of these.

Reasonable accommodation

A change to how or when you work that lets you do your job despite a disability, a religious practice, or a pregnancy-related need, as long as it does not cause the employer serious difficulty or expense.

Respondent

The employer or other party named in your charge. The one the charge is filed against.

Retaliation

Being punished for standing up to discrimination, such as complaining, filing a charge, or backing someone else who did. Retaliation is its own violation, even when the original complaint does not win.

Right to Sue

The notice from the EEOC that lets you take your case to court. Once you receive it, a clock starts, and you generally have 90 days to file a lawsuit.