Discrimination, harassment and how to complain

Understanding your legal protections in the workplace is essential for every worker in the United States—whether you hold an H-1B visa, are a green card holder, are pursuing a student visa, or are in any other visa status. While the United States practices at-will employment, meaning an employer can end your job without advance notice in many circumstances, the law draws a firm line: your employer cannot fire you, demote you, reduce your hours, cut your pay, or mistreat you because of who you are or where you come from. These protections exist under federal law regardless of immigration status.

What Is Illegal Discrimination and Who Is Protected?

Federal law protects workers from discrimination based on seven core characteristics: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), and disability. Many states add additional protections, including sexual orientation and gender identity. These rules apply to all employers with 15 or more employees.

National origin—including accent and ancestry

National origin discrimination covers unfavorable treatment because you or your ancestors are from a particular place or have physical, cultural, or linguistic characteristics of a national origin group. This is a broad category that many foreign-born workers need to understand clearly.

Your accent is explicitly protected. Your employer cannot base employment decisions—hiring, firing, pay, promotion, or scheduling—on your accent unless it genuinely interferes with your ability to perform your job. A hiring manager who rejects you because they find your accent 'hard to understand' when you speak clearly enough for the role is breaking the law. Similarly, your employer cannot require you to be fluent in English or speak a language fluently unless that skill is genuinely necessary to do the job.

Your ancestry also counts. If you are passed over for promotion because your name sounds foreign, or if you are harassed because your family came from a particular country or region, that is discrimination. The law even protects you from discrimination by people who share your own national origin—the characteristic itself is what matters, not the identity of the person doing the discriminating.

Other protected characteristics

Race and color are straightforward. You cannot be treated worse because of your skin tone or racial identity. Religion means your faith (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, atheism, and others) cannot be used against you, nor can your religious practice or observance. Sex includes pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation in many jurisdictions. Disability means your employer must reasonably accommodate known physical or mental disabilities unless doing so creates an undue hardship. Age protection applies to workers 40 and older under federal law. Some states protect younger workers too.

Harassment and a Hostile Work Environment

Discrimination is not only about being fired or passed over for promotion. Harassment based on a protected characteristic is also illegal. This includes unwelcome slurs, jokes, insults, touching, exclusion, or intimidation based on your race, national origin, religion, sex, disability, age, or other protected status.

A hostile work environment exists when harassment becomes so frequent or severe that it affects your ability to work—you are genuinely unable to perform your job or the environment becomes intimidating or offensive. A single offensive comment rarely creates a legal violation, but a pattern of behavior does. If your supervisor or coworkers repeatedly mock your accent, call you names, exclude you from team events, or create an intimidating atmosphere because of your national origin, that is actionable harassment.

Harassment is illegal even if your employer does not intend harm, and it is illegal even if the person harassing you shares your protected characteristic. A manager who is the same nationality as you but harasses you because of it has still broken the law.

Your Right to Complain Without Retaliation

One of the most important protections in US employment law is this: retaliation for complaining about discrimination is itself illegal. You have the absolute right to report discrimination or harassment to your employer, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), to a government agency, to a lawyer, to a newspaper, or to a coworker—and your employer cannot punish you for it.

Punishing you means far more than firing. Retaliation can include being demoted, having your hours cut, receiving a poor performance review, being transferred to an undesirable location or shift, being excluded from meetings or training, or having your work scrutinized more harshly. Any action that a reasonable person would consider to deter complaining counts as retaliation.

• Complaining to your manager or supervisor about discrimination or harassment
• Filing a formal complaint with the EEOC or state agency
• Participating in an employer's internal investigation of discrimination
• Serving as a witness in someone else's discrimination complaint or EEOC case
• Refusing to follow an order you reasonably believe would require you to discriminate against someone else
• Requesting an accommodation for a disability or religious belief
• Simply threatening to file a complaint, even if you later decide not to

Importantly, you are protected from retaliation even if the EEOC later decides there was no actual discrimination. You are also protected if you no longer work at the company—an employer cannot retaliate against a former employee for past complaints, and they cannot retaliate against your family member for your complaint.

The EEOC: Your Free Federal Agency

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a federal agency created to investigate and resolve workplace discrimination complaints. Its services are completely free—you do not need to hire a lawyer, pay a filing fee, or provide any payment to use it. You can file a complaint yourself without legal representation, though you may choose to hire an attorney if you wish.

How to file a complaint

You can file a complaint through the EEOC Public Portal at eeoc.gov, by phone at 1-800-669-4000, by mail, or in person at your nearest EEOC field office. When you contact the EEOC, you will provide basic information: your name and contact details, your employer's name and address, a brief description of what happened, and the dates. The EEOC staff will ask you detailed questions to assess whether your situation is covered by federal law.

Before filing a formal charge, the EEOC may offer mediation—a voluntary, confidential discussion between you and your employer with a mediator helping you find a solution. If you do not want mediation or it does not work, the EEOC will draft a formal document called a Charge of Discrimination for you to sign.

You are not required to be a US citizen or have work authorization to file a complaint. Discrimination laws protect all workers regardless of immigration status.

What happens after you file

Once the EEOC receives your Charge of Discrimination, they will send a copy to your employer within 10 days. Your employer learns that a complaint exists but does not receive all the details you provided to the EEOC. The EEOC then investigates by gathering evidence from both sides, reviewing documents, and conducting interviews.

After investigation, the EEOC reaches a determination: either they find evidence of discrimination (Cause) or they do not find sufficient evidence (No Cause). If they find discrimination, they will try to reach a settlement with your employer. If no settlement is reached, the EEOC may decide to take your case to federal court on your behalf, though this is relatively rare. If the EEOC finds no discrimination or decides not to pursue your case, you will receive a Notice of Right to Sue, which gives you the right to file your own lawsuit in federal court within 90 days.

Critical Deadline: File Within 180 or 300 Days

This is perhaps the single most important rule to remember: the deadline to file an EEOC complaint is strict and unforgiving. Miss it, and you lose your right to sue.

In most cases, you have 180 calendar days from the date of the discriminatory act or the last incident of harassment to file a complaint with the EEOC. This deadline may be extended to 300 days if your state or city has a Fair Employment Practices Agency (FEPA) that enforces the same type of discrimination law. Several states—including California, Hawaii, Nevada, New York, and others—have FEPAs, which means you get the longer deadline.

If you were demoted, do not wait until you are fired to file. The deadline applies to each separate act. If you are harassed on multiple occasions, your deadline is measured from the last incident of harassment, and the EEOC will investigate all incidents even if some occurred more than 180 days ago. However, single incidents more than 180 days in the past (or 300 days, depending on your state) are generally not covered.

Calendar days count—weekends and holidays are included. If your deadline falls on a weekend or federal holiday, you have until the next business day, but it is dangerous to rely on this. File as soon as you realize discrimination has occurred.

What to Gather and Bring

Before you file, collect evidence and documentation. This strengthens your case and helps the EEOC investigate.

• Dates of each incident: Write down exactly when discriminatory comments or actions occurred
• Witnesses: Note the names of anyone who saw or heard the discrimination
• Communications: Save emails, text messages, chat logs, or letters from your manager or coworkers that show discriminatory intent or treatment
• Performance reviews: Gather your recent reviews, especially if they changed tone after you complained or after a protected characteristic became known
• Pay records: If you believe you were paid less than coworkers for similar work, collect pay stubs and employment records
• Attendance and scheduling records: If you were given fewer hours or excluded from events after a protected characteristic became known, document that
• Offer letter and job description: Keep copies of what you were hired to do and what you are actually required to do

Key Points for Immigrants and Visa Holders

Discrimination protections apply to all workers in the United States regardless of visa status, immigration status, or citizenship. You do not need a Social Security Number (SSN) to file an EEOC complaint. You do not need to disclose your immigration status to the EEOC, though the agency may ask for basic information. An employer cannot threaten to report you to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as retaliation for complaining about discrimination.

If you hold an H-1B visa, an H-2A visa, or another temporary visa, you are covered by these laws. Federal law specifically prohibits employers from discriminating against workers based on visa status, and it prohibits paying foreign workers less than similarly situated US workers for the same job. Your visa status does not reduce your rights.

What You Can Recover

If the EEOC or a court finds discrimination in your favor, you may be entitled to compensation. This includes back pay (lost wages from the date of the discriminatory action to the date of resolution), reinstatement to your job if you were fired, compensatory damages for emotional distress or harm to your reputation, and in cases of gross misconduct by the employer, punitive damages. Your employer may also be ordered to change policies, provide training, or post notices informing employees of their rights.

If Your Employer Retaliates

If you file an EEOC complaint and your employer then fires you, cuts your hours, gives you a negative review, or demotes you, that is retaliation, and you can file an additional complaint specifically for retaliation. The same deadline (180 or 300 days) applies—measure from the retaliatory act. You do not need to prove the original discrimination was real; retaliation is illegal even if the EEOC ultimately decides the underlying discrimination claim was unfounded.

Next Steps

If you believe you are experiencing discrimination or harassment at work, do not delay. Contact your nearest EEOC office by phone at 1-800-669-4000, visit the EEOC Public Portal at eeoc.gov, or visit an office in person if you prefer. Write down the dates, details, and names of witnesses while your memory is fresh. Consider consulting with an employment lawyer, especially if your case is complex or if you have already been fired. Most employment lawyers offer free initial consultations.

Remember: at-will employment does not mean lawless employment. You have strong rights, they are free to enforce, and your employer cannot silence you by threatening your job. Your voice matters, and the law backs you up.