Wisconsin Marital Status Discrimination Attorneys

What is Marital Status Discrimination?

• The Wisconsin Fair Employment Act prohibits discriminating against applicants or employees based on the status of being married, single, divorced, separated, or widowed.
• Marital status discrimination claims can also go hand-in-hand with gender discrimination, sex discrimination, equal pay discrimination, or sexual harassment charges.

An employer also may not refuse insurance coverage to employees who are covered under their spouse’s insurance. There are, however, a few notable exceptions to marital status discrimination in the workplace.

What is Not Marital Status Discrimination?

• Providing more extensive health insurance to married employees as opposed to single employees
• Failing to offer dependent health insurance coverage to the unmarried partners of homosexual state employees
• Prohibiting an employee from directly supervising or being directly supervised by his or her spouse
• Discriminating on the basis or because of the specific identity, characteristics, or actions of an employee’s spouse
• Terminating an employee because of his or her conduct, rather than the employee’s status as a married individual
• Demanding that an employee place work before his or her personal life
• Maintaining a company policy that prohibits employees from dating, living, or maintaining a romantic association if the policy applies equally to all employees, regardless of marital status, and attempts to regulate conduct rather than the status of being married or single