Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

In the last days of 2019, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a law that bans employers from discriminating against employees based on hairstyles that are associated with race. In doing so, New Jersey joined New York and California—both of which enacted similar legislation earlier in 2019—in prohibiting hair discrimination in the workplace.

States and localities have recently enacted legislation focused on employers’ dress and grooming policies. In this video, Hunton Andrews Kurth partners Emily Burkhardt Vicente and Amber M. Rogers discuss recent developments in this area, including New York City’s recent guidance on work rules regarding hairstyles, and tips for employers as they navigate this evolving area of law.

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Enforcing a race-neutral grooming policy that prohibits employees from wearing dreadlocks is not intentional racial discrimination under Title VII.  That is what the Eleventh Circuit recently held in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Catastrophe Management Solutions, --- F.3d ---, No. 14-13482, 2016 WL 4916851 (11th Cir. Sept. 15, 2016).