Bob has an arrest record, so you decide not to hire him. Not in most states. Arrest records generally cannot be used as the basis for employment discrimination. And although an arrest record is different from a conviction record, in a few states, conviction records cannot be used as the basis for employment discrimination unless the employer can show that the area of conviction is directly related to having an adverse impact to the job under consideration. On a national basis, employees are protected from employment discrimination based upon age if over the age of 40.
Many states have age discrimination employment laws as well.
Many states are interpreting their own age discrimination laws to protect anyone over the age of 18. Federal laws . However, while certain minimum employee levels apply on a federal level, typically mandating a minimum of 15 employees before federal law applies, many states lower this threshold to as low as two or three. Arizona is not one of the more than 20 states that have state laws that protect employees from harassment and discrimination based upon sexual orientation. However, the answer isn't that simple, because Maricopa County, the county in which Phoenix is located, has county laws that protect employees against sexual orientation discrimination.