The 8 Most Common Types of Workplace Discrimination in California (With Real Examples)

The eight that come up most often in California workplaces are disability, race and color, sex and gender, pregnancy, age, national origin and ancestry, religious creed, and sexual orientation. California protects more characteristics than federal law does, and it protects combinations of them. Below is what each one looks like in practice, and how to tell discrimination from a manager who is simply difficult.

At a glance

• California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protects a longer list of characteristics than federal law, and FEHA applies to employers who regularly employ five or more people.
• The eight below account for most California workplace discrimination claims, but they are not the whole list. Government Code section 12940(a) protects eighteen characteristics in total, including marital status, genetic information, medical condition, reproductive health decisionmaking, and veteran or military status.
• FEHA expressly protects combinations of characteristics, so a claim can rest on the intersection of two or more rather than on one alone. That wording took effect on January 1, 2025, and the Legislature declared it a statement of existing law rather than a new protection.
• Discrimination is about the reason for the treatment, not how unfair it felt. Unfair and unlawful are not the same thing.
• Retaliation for complaining is a separate claim, and it is frequently what follows a complaint rather than a ninth type.

What are the most common types of workplace discrimination in California?

The eight that generate the most claims are set out below. Each is a characteristic FEHA protects, meaning an employer generally cannot use it as a reason for a hiring, pay, promotion, discipline, or firing decision.

One note on counting before we start. You will see lists of seven, eight, ten, or thirteen "types" of workplace discrimination. None of those numbers is official. FEHA's actual protected list runs to eighteen characteristics. Eight is a useful way to cover the ground most California workers stand on, rather than a legal category. If yours is not in the eight, it may still be protected. The full list is in Government Code section 12940(a), and our discrimination practice page explains how we handle these claims. Do not assume you are not covered because your characteristic is not one of the eight below.

Every example below is an illustration written to be recognizable. None is a client matter.

1. Disability discrimination

FEHA covers physical disability, mental disability, and medical condition. It is one of the most frequently charged bases in California year after year, partly because it carries an extra duty most other categories do not: the employer generally has to engage with you about reasonable accommodation rather than simply deciding on your behalf.

The pattern is often not a refusal. It is a conversation that never happens.

Illustration: a warehouse worker gives HR a doctor's note recommending a lifting restriction. Instead of discussing whether the restriction can be accommodated, the employer says the role "requires full duty" and moves them to on-call shifts that dry up over six weeks.

What matters: whether the employer discussed accommodation with you at all, whether it asked for the information it needed, and whether it can show the accommodation was genuinely unworkable rather than inconvenient. We cover this ground in more depth in our FAQs on disability discrimination and reasonable accommodations.

2. Race and color discrimination

Race and color are protected, and California defines race more broadly than many people realize. Race is inclusive of traits associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles. A grooming policy applied against a protective hairstyle can therefore be race discrimination, not a neutral dress-code matter.

Illustration: a customer-facing employee is told her locs are not "client-ready" and is asked to change her hair before a presentation, while colleagues with other hair types face no comparable request.

What matters: whether a policy is applied unevenly, whether the stated standard is defined by reference to one group's appearance, and how comparable employees were treated.

3. Sex, gender, gender identity and gender expression discrimination

FEHA protects sex and gender, and "gender" expressly includes gender identity and gender expression. That covers being treated worse for being a woman or a man, and it covers being treated worse for being transgender or for presenting in a way an employer dislikes.

Illustration: a technician's performance ratings drop in the review cycle immediately after they begin using a new name and pronouns at work, with no change in their output or a documented performance concern.

What matters: the timing, whether the stated reason shifted, and whether the standard applied to you was applied to everyone.

4. Pregnancy discrimination

Pregnancy sits inside FEHA's definition of sex, which includes pregnancy, childbirth-related medical conditions, and breastfeeding. So a decision made because you are pregnant, might become pregnant, or have just returned from leave is sex discrimination.

Illustration: an employee announces a pregnancy in March and is removed from a project she had led for two years, on the stated basis that the client "needs continuity" through the fall.

What matters: what changed and when, and whether the employer's continuity rationale was applied to anyone else taking leave. California and federal accommodation rules also overlap here in ways that catch employers out, which we compare in PWFA vs. California FEHA.

5. Age discrimination

Under FEHA, age means the chronological age of anyone who has reached a 40th birthday. There is no upper limit, and being replaced by someone younger is not by itself proof, but it is often where the pattern starts to show.

Age cases rarely arrive labeled. They arrive as restructures.

Illustration: a "flattening" of a department falls almost entirely on its oldest employees, and the replacement postings describe the same duties under a new title at a lower salary band.

What matters: who was selected and who was not, whether the selection criteria were written down before the decision, and what the job postings show. Our age discrimination in layoffs article goes through the signals.

6. National origin and ancestry discrimination

FEHA protects national origin and ancestry. This reaches accent-based decisions, English-only rules that are not genuinely necessary for the job, assumptions about immigration status, and treatment based on where someone or their family is from.

Illustration: a bilingual employee is passed over for a supervisor role because a manager says clients "struggle with his accent," though he has handled the same clients by phone for three years without a complaint.

What matters: whether the language or communication requirement is actually necessary for the role, and whether it was ever applied to anyone else.

7. Religious creed discrimination

Religious creed is protected, and as with disability, it carries an accommodation dimension: schedules, dress and grooming practices, and observance.

Illustration: an employee requests Saturdays off for religious observance. The request is granted for two months, then quietly reversed when a new supervisor arrives, and he is written up for the next missed Saturday.

What matters: whether the employer considered an accommodation, whether one had already been working in practice, and what changed.

8. Sexual orientation discrimination

Sexual orientation is a protected characteristic under FEHA. Claims here often run together with harassment, because the conduct shows up as comments and exclusion before it shows up in a formal decision.

Illustration: after mentioning a same-sex partner at a team dinner, an employee stops being invited to the client calls that had been part of his role, and is later told he is "not a culture fit" for the promotion.

What matters: the change in treatment after you became known, and whether the "fit" reasoning tracks anything measurable.

What about combinations of these? California wrote intersectionality into the statute in 2025

This is where California is genuinely ahead, and it matters if your situation never fit neatly in one box.

SB 1137 was chaptered on September 27, 2024, and from January 1, 2025 FEHA's protected characteristics expressly include any combination of those characteristics. The bill's author described California as the first state to write this protection into its anti-discrimination law.

The Legislature also said the amendment declares existing law rather than changing it, so an older set of facts is not outside FEHA merely because it predates 2025. Your filing deadline is a separate question, and it is the one to check.

The practical effect: if you were treated worse as an older woman, and neither the older men nor the younger women in your team were treated that way, you do not have to force the claim into "age" or "sex" alone. The combination is itself the protected ground.

Ready to talk it through? If your situation spans two or more of these, a short conversation is usually faster than more reading. Tell us what happened.

Is retaliation a type of discrimination?

It is a separate claim, and it is often the one that does the real damage. Retaliation is when an employer punishes you for protected activity, such as reporting discrimination, requesting an accommodation, taking protected leave, or raising a wage complaint.

That is why the sequence matters so much. What happens after a complaint is often better documented than what prompted it, which can make the retaliation the clearer half of the picture. Our retaliation article covers how California treats it.

How do I know if it is discrimination and not just a bad manager?

Look at the reason and the pattern rather than at how it felt. A manager can be unpleasant, unfair, or wrong without breaking the law. The question is whether a protected characteristic drove the treatment.

Signals worth writing down:

• Timing. Treatment changed shortly after the employer learned something about you, or shortly after you complained or requested something.
• Comparators. People outside your group did the same thing and were treated differently.
• Shifting reasons. The stated explanation changed, or does not match the documents.
• Deviation from process. A written policy or progressive-discipline step was skipped for you.
• Comments. Remarks about your age, accent, hair, pregnancy, religion, or orientation, even framed as jokes.
• Documents that do not line up. Strong reviews until the month the decision was made.

None of these on its own proves a claim. Together they are what a case is built from, which is why a dated timeline is more useful than a general article.

How long do you have to file a discrimination claim in California?

Generally three years to file with the state, then a shorter clock to sue. A FEHA discrimination claim requires an administrative complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) (formerly DFEH) before you can go to court, and you generally have three years from the unlawful act to file it. Once the CRD issues a right-to-sue notice, a separate one-year clock starts for filing your lawsuit. Federal deadlines through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) are much shorter.

Some clocks start earlier than the day you were fired or demoted. We break each one down in how long you have to file. Do not calendar a date from an article. Deadlines can run early, so confirm yours with us before you rely on it.

What should I do if HR is the problem?

Report anyway, in writing, and keep your own copy outside company systems. An internal complaint is often what converts later punishment into a retaliation claim, and HR's response becomes part of the record either way.

Then be careful with one thing that catches people out. Internal complaints and appeals generally do not pause the legal deadlines above. You can run a grievance process all the way to its end and still lose the right to sue.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most common types of workplace discrimination in California?

Disability, race and color, sex and gender, pregnancy, age, national origin and ancestry, religious creed, and sexual orientation. FEHA's full protected list is longer and also covers marital status, genetic information, medical condition, reproductive health decisionmaking, and veteran or military status.

What are the 7 types of discrimination in the workplace?

There is no official count of seven. Different sources group the categories differently. Under California's FEHA, eighteen characteristics are protected, so any list of seven, eight, or ten is a summary rather than a legal category.

Does California protect more than federal law?

Yes. FEHA covers characteristics federal law does not reach the same way, defines race to include hair texture and protective hairstyles, includes gender identity and gender expression within sex, and expressly protects combinations of characteristics, wording added to the statute effective January 1, 2025.

Does FEHA apply to small employers?

FEHA's definition of employer includes any person regularly employing five or more people. Whether a particular employer is covered can depend on the details, so it is worth confirming rather than assuming.

How long do I have to file a discrimination claim in California?

Generally three years from the unlawful act to file an administrative complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, which is required before you can sue on a FEHA claim. After the CRD issues a right-to-sue notice, a separate one-year clock runs for filing in court. Federal deadlines through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) are shorter. Confirm your specific dates with a lawyer.

How do I prove workplace discrimination?

Through timing, comparators, shifting explanations, deviations from written process, and documents that contradict the stated reason. Direct evidence is rare. Most cases are proved with a pattern, which is why a dated timeline and your own copies of documents matter so much.

Is it discrimination if my employer treats everyone badly?

Usually not, on its own. If the treatment is genuinely uniform and unrelated to a protected characteristic, it may be unfair without being unlawful. What changes the analysis is evidence that people in your group were treated worse.

Think one of these describes your situation?

If the treatment tracks a protected characteristic, or changed after you complained or asked for an accommodation, it is worth having the facts reviewed before a deadline passes. We represent employees, only employees, across California, and most of our work is in Los Angeles. The consultation is free. We handle most employment cases on a contingency-fee basis: you do not pay an attorney's fee unless we recover for you, and you are not responsible for the costs we advance if there is no recovery. We will explain the specific fee terms in writing before you decide to move forward.

Call (424) 255-8376 or contact us for a free, confidential case review.

The Law Offices of Jonathan J. Delshad is a Los Angeles based employment law firm representing employees across California in wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wage and hour matters. Representing employees is the core of the firm's practice. Mr. Delshad serves as Editor-in-Chief of the California Wrongful Termination Law Review and trained at Latham & Watkins. Recognition includes Super Lawyers (2022 to 2026), Best Lawyers (since 2017), and an Avvo 10.0 "Superb" rating. Reviewed for California employment law accuracy. Last updated: July 30, 2026.

Attorney advertising. This article is educational only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship, which exists only under a signed engagement agreement. Every case is different, and outcomes depend on the specific facts. Deadlines can run early, so consult a lawyer promptly about your situation.