05th Dec 2007
Illegal Hiring Questions
It’s important for employers and job interview candidates to know what sorts of questions are illegal to ask during an interview. Illegal Hiring Questions gives a brief overview of the basic sorts of illegal questions including:
1) How old are you?
2) Date of graduation from high school? (Could be seen as both age discrimination and discrimination against minorities.)
3) Marital status? (Could be seen as discriminative against women.)
4) Age of children? (Also could be seen as discriminative against women.)
5) Do you have any physical limitations?
6) Have you ever been arrested? (Could be seen as discriminative against minorities.)
You might also want to read What Not To Ask and Other Tips for Conducting a Successful Interview.
Isn’t it racist in and of itself to say that questions about arrest records and high school graduation could be discriminatory against minorities? That just smells funny to me.
I suppose so. It’s legal advice though (general legal advice), so I think it’s not necessarily concerned with what is ethical, right, or true, as much as how an action could be perceived legally.
That puzzled me, too, GG, but upon reading it again, I think the point it’s trying to make is that if you ask this question of a “minority” that person might assume you’re suggesting things about them. I know that if I walked into a job interview and someone asked me if I’d ever been arrested, I’d be like WTF? Why are you asking me this? I might even wonder if they were asking me this *because* of my race.
My question was: what do you, as the interviewee, do/say if these questions are asked? Do you say, “This question is illegal!”? Probably not. I mean, not if you want to be hired. But I think the list and article are geared towards employers.
Could you say something like, “Ha, ha. I’m sure you don’t mean to ask about that! Because that would be illegal.”
I dunno, it’s been on every single application I’ve ever filled out. If they ask everyone, what’s the problem? I sure as hell wouldn’t want to hire a convicted embezzler or armed robber. Maybe you’re just not allowed to ask it verbally. Or maybe all those applications were illegal. But I’ve gotten it in retail, corporate, and private sectors.
And there was a recent article about how it is now a part of the standard collecge app. Becuase otherwise it opens colleges up to a whole host of legal issues.
I guess I just don’t have a problem with it. But I could see why others would.
Wait, applications ask if you’ve been arrested? Or if you’re a convicted felon? Because I’ve never been asked verbally or in writing if I’ve been arrested, but I’ve seen the convicted felon a number of times, which seems entirely different.
Yes, applications almost always (probably always) ask if you’ve been convicted of a felony. But you could be arrested for ANYTHING - protesting at a rally, shoplifting, drunk and disorderly, etc.
Isn’t “convicted embezzler” an oxymoron? =P
Yeah, I really do think asking if you’ve been arrested is inappropriate.
Okay, you’re right on that distinction.
I believe the college apps actually do ask about arrests and major suspensions, and they want to know even if it’s been expunged from your record. It’s really only happened since V-Tech.
Convicted embezzler isn’t an oxymoron because I’m sure there are plenty out there who haven’t been caught yet.