Employment Law
Los Angeles Discrimination Attorneys
Workers in California have the right to be free from discrimination and harassment, including a hostile work environment. Every day, however, employees throughout the state are subjected to illegal discrimination. The Los Angeles discrimination lawyers at King & Siegel LLP can help you take a stand against discrimination in your workplace.
Whether you work in Downtown Los Angeles, Century City, Hollywood, Koreatown, Westwood, Baldwin Hills, or elsewhere across Los Angeles County, no one should have to choose between earning a paycheck and enduring unlawful discrimination. From Burbank film studios and Culver City hospitals to Downtown warehouses, Silver Lake retail stores, Los Feliz public agencies, and Studio City technology companies, California employees have the right to be judged on their performance rather than protected characteristics.
Our Los Angeles employment discrimination lawyers help clients take legal action when they experience any of the following:
- Pregnancy discrimination
- Disability discrimination
- Race discrimination
- Gender discrimination
- Sexual orientation discrimination
- Religious discrimination
- Age discrimination
- Parental status discrimination
If you believe your employer treated you differently because of who you are, speaking with a Los Angeles discrimination lawyer early can help you understand your rights, preserve important evidence, and avoid mistakes that could affect your legal options. King & Siegel LLP represents employees only and provides strategic, compassionate guidance from the moment workplace discrimination becomes a concern.
Types of Discrimination Claims Our Los Angeles Discrimination Lawyers Handle
Employment discrimination in Los Angeles takes many forms, and it is not always obvious when it begins. Sometimes it appears through a termination or demotion. Other times, it develops through unequal pay, denied promotions, refused accommodations, or a pattern of decisions that place one employee at a disadvantage because of a protected characteristic. King & Siegel represents workers facing a wide range of discrimination claims.
Treated differently at work? Check the signs of discrimination.
If your employer fired, demoted, harassed, denied accommodations, reduced opportunities, or retaliated against you because of who you are, King & Siegel LLP can help you understand your rights.
Discrimination Case Signal Check
Select what matches your situation. This is not a legal decision, but it can help visitors recognize when a free case evaluation may be urgent.
Select the signs that match your situation. Discrimination cases often depend on timing, unequal treatment, comments, policies, and employer excuses.
What Evidence Should You Save?
Employment discrimination cases are often built from patterns. Use this guide to organize what may help during a free review.
If you were treated differently
If there were comments or messages
If you were fired, demoted, or pushed out
Published discrimination results from King & Siegel LLP
Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes, but they help show the firm’s experience with complex workplace discrimination claims.
You deserve a workplace where who you are is not used against you.
If you were fired, demoted, harassed, denied accommodations, passed over, or retaliated against because of a protected characteristic, contact King & Siegel LLP for a free case evaluation.
Pregnancy Discrimination
California law protects pregnant women and mothers who have recently given birth. It’s illegal for your employer to fire or treat you differently in the workplace because you’re pregnant or have a newborn. In addition, your employer must honor your rights if you experience pregnancy loss.
Pregnancy discrimination is not limited to termination. It can also involve:
- Reduced hours,
- Denied promotions,
- Unfavorable schedule changes,
- Exclusion from important projects, or
- An employer’s refusal to provide legally required accommodations.
California law protects employees during pregnancy, after childbirth, and in connection with related medical conditions, giving many workers broader protections than federal law alone. A Los Angeles discrimination lawyer can evaluate whether your employer’s actions crossed the line from unfair treatment to unlawful discrimination. At King & Siegel, we’re one of the select few law firms in California that specifically advocates for victims of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
Disability Discrimination
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and California law, employers can’t treat you differently because you have a physical or mental disability. California law goes further. It protects people with conditions that substantially limit their ability to participate in daily activities. Those protections may require an employer to provide reasonable accommodation and to participate in a good-faith interactive process to determine what adjustments could help the employee continue working.
Discrimination may occur when management:
- Ignores an accommodation request,
- Disciplines someone for disability-related limitations, or
- Relies on assumptions about what that person can accomplish instead of evaluating their actual abilities.
For a Los Angeles employee navigating long commutes, inflexible production schedules, crowded hospital shifts, or rigid office attendance rules, even a modest accommodation can determine whether they can remain in the job. At King & Siegel, we can assess whether the employer genuinely explored workable options or simply treated disability as an inconvenience.
Race Discrimination
Treating someone different in the workplace because of the way they look, their ethnicity, or their national origin is illegal. Preferential treatment in the workplace is likewise illegal. If your employer fired, demoted, or harassed you because of your race, you may have an employment discrimination claim against them. Race discrimination can also appear through:
- Unequal discipline,
- Exclusion from desirable assignments,
- Denied promotions, racial comments, or
- Workplace rules that management enforces more harshly against certain employees.
Even when an employer offers a neutral explanation, comparisons with coworkers, shifting reasons, and the timing of the decision may reveal a discriminatory motive.
Gender Discrimination
Treating someone unequally in the workplace because of their gender is illegal. This includes gender identity and gender expression. If an employer takes adverse action because of your gender, it’s unethical and illegal.
Gender discrimination may also involve:
- Unequal pay,
- Fewer advancement opportunities,
- Stereotyping,
- Harsher discipline, or
- Different workplace expectations based on gender.
California law protects employees from discrimination because of both their sex and their gender identity or expression, regardless of whether the employer’s bias is overt or subtle.
Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Discriminating against someone because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation is unlawful. Additionally, an employer can’t take adverse action because of a belief about your or your family member’s sexual orientation. It’s typically irrelevant whether the belief is true. What matters is that discriminatory reasons motivated them to take the action.
That conduct may include:
- Denying promotions,
- Changing assignments,
- Excluding someone from workplace opportunities,
- Tolerating hostile comments, or
- Punishing an employee after they complain about unequal treatment.
In Los Angeles, where LGBTQ+ employees help shape the city’s entertainment, hospitality, healthcare, education, and public-service sectors, workplace acceptance should extend beyond a company’s public image. At King & Siegel, we can examine whether an employer’s policies matched its conduct when a worker’s sexual orientation became part of the decision-making process.
Religious Discrimination
Everyone has a right to the free exercise of religion. This includes wearing clothes, jewelry, or head coverings because of a sincerely held religious belief. Your employer can’t prevent you from or fire you for taking days off to observe religious holidays.
Employers also have a duty to reasonably accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs and practices unless doing so would create an undue hardship. Depending on the circumstances, that accommodation may involve:
- Scheduling adjustments,
- Dress or grooming exceptions, or
- Other reasonable changes that allow an employee to perform their job while honoring their faith.
Employers cannot force workers to choose between practicing their faith and keeping their jobs, and when they do, a Los Angeles discrimination lawyer at King & Siegel can help protect the employee’s rights under California and federal law.
Age Discrimination
Hiring, firing, demoting, or taking other adverse action because of someone’s age is against the law. This includes forced retirement.
Age discrimination may also appear when employers repeatedly:
- Overlook experienced employees for promotions,
- Make age-related comments,
- Pressure older workers to retire, or
- Assume they are less adaptable than younger coworkers despite strong performance.
Our Los Angeles employment discrimination lawyers regularly go up against employers who discriminate against people because of their age.
Parental Status Discrimination
Federal and state law protects people against discrimination because of their parental status. This may include continuously giving a worker less jobs to do because they are a parent. Parental status discrimination also occurs when the employer denies someone maternity or paternity leave.
Discrimination connected to parenting or caregiving responsibilities may include:
- Assuming a parent cannot handle demanding assignments, travel, promotions, or leadership responsibilities;
- Reducing hours, duties, or advancement opportunities after an employee has a child or requests family leave;
- Penalizing a worker for taking legally protected maternity, paternity, bonding, or caregiving leave;
- Applying attendance, scheduling, or flexibility policies more harshly to employees with children; or
- Making negative comments about an employee’s commitment, reliability, or availability because they are a parent.
Parental status alone does not create a claim in every circumstance, but the conduct may violate laws governing sex discrimination, pregnancy, family leave, association, or retaliation. A Los Angeles discrimination lawyer can examine the employer’s stated reason, compare how other workers were treated, and determine which protections apply.
Our Los Angeles discrimination lawyers are knowledgeable and passionate about this area of law. We understand that work is not just something you do each day; it can be a fundamental part of who you are, and it is how you satisfy the basic human need to support yourself and your family. We have successfully represented a wide range of clients in a variety of employment discrimination cases. Regardless of your particular circumstances, we are committed to fighting for your best interests.
What Is Employment Discrimination in Los Angeles?
In California, there are laws in place that protect workers from discrimination in the workplace. These statutes are enforced by the California Civil Rights Department, and generally apply to employers who have more than five employees on payroll. Employers are prohibited from discriminating against current employees and/or job applicants due to the individual’s membership in a protected class.
Employment discrimination can affect nearly every stage of the working relationship, including:
- Hiring—decisions based on a protected characteristic rather than a candidate’s qualifications;
- Compensation—practices that result in unequal pay, bonuses, benefits, or commissions;
- Promotion—choices influenced by stereotypes, bias, or assumptions about an employee’s abilities;
- Discipline—penalties imposed more harshly on one worker than on similarly situated coworkers;
- Scheduling—changes, transfers, or assignments used to disadvantage a protected employee; and
- Termination—separations motivated partly or entirely by unlawful prejudice.
Discrimination does not need to appear in a written policy or an explicit admission. Patterns, comparisons, timing, coded comments, and changing explanations may all help reveal why an employer made a particular decision. King & Siegel can examine those details and determine whether the conduct falls within California or federal anti-discrimination law.
What Qualifies as Discrimination in in Los Angeles Workplaces?
Employment discrimination may occur when an employer takes an adverse action because of someone’s characteristics, not their qualifications. Here are examples of actions that may be discriminatory:
- Preferential treatment—consistently promoting or hiring workers who have certain characteristics or treating them better than other employees.
- Termination—firing an employee because of their race, religious belief, gender, or other protected characteristic or class.
- Unfair treatment—this includes assigning a worker more or less work than others or excluding the worker from company activities.
- Denying a worker reasonable accommodation—failing to adjust the hours or the manner of work that would allow a worker with a disability to complete their job is a denial of reasonable accommodation.
- Retaliation—taking adverse action because someone filed or helped someone else file a discrimination complaint.
- Harassment—harassing someone or creating a hostile work condition because they are a member of a protected class.
- Choosing not to hire someone—deciding not to hire someone because of their membership in a protected class, rather than their qualifications.
- Giving someone a bad reference—failing to provide a good reference or actively hindering someone’s ability to get another job.
California additionally protects workers from discrimination based on the actual or perceived characteristics of you, your friends, and your family members.
For example, let’s say that your boss hears a rumor that your sister is transgender. Your boss hasn’t met your sister and doesn’t have confirmation that the rumor is or isn’t true. Your boss fires or demotes you because of their belief that your sister is transgender. This might be discrimination. In California, the question is whether improper considerations motivated your boss to take adverse action.
Our workplace discrimination lawyers can evaluate your claim and help you understand your legal rights. We go above and beyond to help make you comfortable while serving as strategic and aggressive advocates.
Who Is Protected from Employment Discrimination?
Anti-discrimination laws protect anyone who falls within a protected class.
Under California employment law, workers are protected from illegal discrimination based on:
- Age
- Sex
- Marital status
- Race or ethnicity
- Ancestry or national origin
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity or gender expression
- Religion
- Mental or physical disability
- Medical conditions
- Genetic information
- Military and veteran status
In situations where an employee can demonstrate that they have been discriminated against because they are a member of one of these protected classes, the individual may pursue legal action against their employer. There are several reasons one may choose to file an employment discrimination lawsuit, including ending the discrimination, getting personal vindication, obtaining financial compensation, and protecting the future of others. Our Los Angeles discrimination lawyers are here to help you clarify your goals and evaluate the costs and benefits of filing a lawsuit against your employer.
What Are Common Signs of Workplace Discrimination in Los Angeles?
Discrimination does not always involve an obvious slur, a written admission, or an immediate termination. More often, it appears through patterns that slowly alter an employee’s career, compensation, or standing within the workplace.
Common warning signs may include:
- Passing over a qualified employee for promotion because of a protected characteristic;
- Paying employees differently for substantially similar work based on unlawful considerations;
- Excluding a worker from meetings, training, networking opportunities, or important projects because of bias;
- Enforcing workplace policies more harshly against one employee than against similarly situated coworkers;
- Refusing to provide reasonable accommodations required by law; and
- Making employment decisions based on stereotypes instead of actual qualifications or performance.
No single sign proves discrimination by itself. The stronger question is whether the timing, comparisons, comments, and shifting explanations reveal that a protected characteristic influenced the employer’s decision. A Los Angeles discrimination lawyer can examine those details and determine whether the conduct may support a claim.
You Have the Right to a Workplace Free From Discrimination. King & Siegel is Committed to Helping You Fight For the Justice You Deserve.
How Do I Prove Discrimination in the Workplace?
In general, there are four elements that you need to show to prove a discrimination case:
- You are a member of a protected class;
- You are qualified for the job or performed the job well;
- Your employer took adverse action against you; and
- Your employer’s decision was motivated by discriminatory reasons.
Meeting these legal requirements often depends on the evidence available, such as:
- Emails and text messages discussing the employment decision or protected characteristic;
- Performance evaluations showing a history of satisfactory work before the adverse action;
- Comparisons with similarly situated coworkers who received different treatment;
- Witness statements from supervisors, coworkers, or others who observed the discriminatory conduct;
- Company policies, disciplinary records, or personnel documents that contradict the employer’s explanation; and
- A timeline showing when discriminatory comments, complaints, or employment actions occurred.
Discrimination cases rarely depend on a single piece of evidence. More often, they are built by connecting documents, witness testimony, and workplace events into a consistent account of what actually happened.
How Do I File a Workplace Discrimination Complaint in Los Angeles?
You can file a workplace discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the California Civil Rights Department
The EEOC enforces certain anti-discrimination laws. The California DFEH also enforces anti-discrimination laws. Both agencies also investigate and oversee disputes regarding employment discrimination.
In most cases, you need to file a complaint with these agencies before filing a discrimination lawsuit. Depending on the circumstances, you usually only have 180 days in which to file the complaint. The event that starts the clock is the date on which the discriminatory action took place. This could be the date that you lost your job or were passed up for the promotion.
The best way to protect your legal rights is to contact our Los Angeles employment discrimination lawyers. We can evaluate your claim and help you meet these critical deadlines.
Frequently Asked Questions About Workplace Discrimination in Los Angeles
Can I Bring a Discrimination Claim If I Was Never Fired?
Yes. Unlawful discrimination is not limited to termination. Employees may have a claim if they were denied promotions, paid less than similarly situated coworkers, refused reasonable accommodations, transferred to less desirable positions, or subjected to other adverse employment actions because of a protected characteristic.
Can My Employer Discriminate Against Me Based on a Mistaken Belief?
Yes. California law may protect employees even when an employer’s belief is incorrect. For example, an employer generally cannot make employment decisions based on an inaccurate assumption about a worker’s disability, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or another protected characteristic if that belief motivated the decision.
Should I Report Workplace Discrimination to Human Resources?
Many employees choose to report discrimination internally, but every situation is different. An internal complaint may help create a record of what occurred, yet it does not guarantee the employer will resolve the problem appropriately. Before making a report, consider speaking with us to understand your options and protect your legal rights.
How Soon Should I Contact an Attorney About Workplace Discrimination?
As soon as possible. Employment discrimination claims are subject to filing deadlines, and important evidence can disappear over time. Speaking with King & Siegel early can help preserve documents, identify applicable laws, and ensure you do not miss critical deadlines as you decide how to move forward.
Your Rights Matter – Let a Los Angeles Discrimination Lawyer at King & Siegel Stand by Your Side in Your Discrimination Case
The outcome of your discrimination case is largely dependent on the quality of representation that you obtain. It is crucial to work with a legal team that understands the intricacies of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, the California Labor Code, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and other applicable laws. You will also want a representative who is committed to helping you achieve the best possible outcome.
At King & Siegel LLP, we offer experienced representation for employees whose rights have been violated in the workplace. If you have faced discrimination or wrongfully terminated as a result, you can trust our Los Angeles discrimination attorneys to put forth maximum effort for your case. We work on a contingency basis, which means you don’t pay us unless you win.
Our experienced legal team also handles other types of employment law cases, including cases surrounding:
- The Equal Pay Act,
- Sexual Harassment,
- Medical & Disability Leave,
- Stock Disputes,
- Wrongful Termination,
- Whistleblowers,
- Wage & Hour Violations, and
- Workplace Retaliation.
King & Siegel represents employees only, including workers across Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, the Westside, the San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles, Long Beach, and the wider county. Contact us for a confidential consultation. Whether you already know discrimination occurred or simply need help making sense of what happened, we can evaluate your options and build a strategy around your goals.
Official Legal and Other Sources Used to Inform This Page
To ensure the accuracy and clarity of this page, we referenced official legal and other sources during the content development process.
- California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices
- California Department of Industrial Relations: Laws that Prohibit Retaliation and Discrimination
- California Civil Rights Department
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)