If you are unhappy about the dress code your employer is asking you to abide by and are wondering why they are not making everyone in your workforce dress like that, you might wonder if discrimination is at play.
Yet, if you think about other businesses you use, you’ll likely have noticed not all the employees of one company dress the same as each other, either. So, what are the rules surrounding dress codes? How is it that an employer can expect some staff to dress one way but let others dress differently?
Dress codes cannot discriminate based on protected characteristics
There is no rule saying everyone in the company needs to be subject to the same dress code. An employer is even free to insist that some workers abide by a dress code, whereas others can dress as they please. The key is how they decide who it applies to.
What employers cannot do is discriminate against a certain group of people who share a protected characteristic. And they cannot place more of a burden on one group who share a protected characteristic than another.
So, while they can insist on a different dress code for men and women in a particular position, the cost and time needed to adhere needs to be roughly equal for each of them in that same position. They can, though, impose a more burdensome dress code on those who work in a particular area of the team, such as front of house, compared to those who work back of house. This is because the boundary is determined by the job position, not their sex or any other protected characteristic.
A dress code that inadvertently affects people of one protected characteristic group more than another might still be discriminatory. For example, saying all women must wear their hair straight was once considered fairly normal in workplaces across the country. Then politicians woke up to the fact that this was discriminatory against women from races with naturally curly hair. The CROWN Act was brought in to prohibit employers from insisting on this.
Determining whether something at work is discriminatory or not can sometimes be challenging. Learning more can help you determine what legal steps you may be able to take.