New Jersey Law Against Discrimination

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) is a state law that prohibits discrimination in employment based on actual or perceived immutable characteristics. It is one of the strongest employee protection laws in the country.

Characteristics protected by the LAD include: race, color, religion or creed, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, age, marital/domestic partnership/civil union status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, mental or physical disability, atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait, genetic information, liability for military service, pregnancy or breastfeeding, and refusal to submit to a genetic test or make available to an employer the results of a genetic test.

Discrimination can include any harmful action that is taken at least partly because of an employee’s membership in a protected class, such as firing an employee, demoting them, reducing their pay, refusing to give them a raise or other benefit, or passing them over for a promotion because of one of the protected characteristics; these are considered tangible employment actions under the LAD.

Also covered under the LAD are:

• Harassment or creation of a hostile work environment because of a protected characteristic. The scenarios are limitless, but jokes about a person’s race, religion, gender, orientation, age or other protected characteristics are illegal harassment. Unwanted touching or sexual propositions are also illegal harassment under the LAD.
• Retaliation is also prohibited. This includes retaliation for complaining or objecting to discrimination against yourself or another person. The complaint does not have to be formal or in court; even informal complaints of discrimination or illegal harassment are protected.