Santa Clara County Employment Law Blog

Over the past decade or so, Silicon Valley has become synonymous with social media. While nearly everyone uses social media, it is primarily associated with younger people (Mark Zuckerberg was only 19 when he invented Facebook). For this and other reasons, technology companies and venture capitalists are looking for the next up-and-coming innovators, but most of them are only interested in younger workers.

In a recent online article, an entrepreneur named Vivek Wadwha argues that age discrimination in Silicon Valley not only unfair; it is also bad for business. He explains that while younger workers may be full of ideas and are comfortable with emerging technologies, they often lack the age, knowledge and experience to turn those ideas into profitable products.

Because of advances in modern medicine, many diseases that were once fatal are now often treatable. This is particularly true with several types of cancer. But even though more serious health conditions are now survivable, the toll they take on one's life, health and happiness is immense.

When a patient is fighting a battle with cancer, the last thing they should have to worry about is the security of their job. Unfortunately, research shows that many cancer survivors face disability discrimination at work.

It may come as a surprise to many that current federal law does not specifically prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. While some states have outlawed the practice of discharging an employee based on his or her sexual orientation, there are currently no protections in place at the federal level.

Luckily, that may soon change as a bill was recently introduced in both houses of Congress. The bill is called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA for short. If signed into law, ENDA would prohibit employers from discriminating against employees based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. The bill would prevent employers from discharging, failing to provide equal pay or refusing to hire an employee based on his or her sexual orientation.

Discrimination laws are generally considered under certain degrees of scrutiny. Certain workers are considered to be members of protected classes. When these workers are discriminated against, the courts weigh the legal arguments seeking to uphold this discrimination using a stringent test commonly referred to as strict scrutiny.

When a worker facing discrimination of any kind is not a member of a protected class, the courts view the situation through the lens of lesser levels of scrutiny. In essence, not all workplace discrimination is viewed as equally legitimate.