Employment Laws in Maryland

Definition of employee. Employee means an individual employed by an employer but not a person elected to public office or any person chosen by a public officer to be on the officer's staff or an appointee on the policy making level or an immediate advisor with respect to the exercise of the constitutional or legal powers of the office, other than employees subject to state or local civil service laws.

Definition of employer. The term employer means a person engaged in industry or business who has 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year and any agent of an employer, and the state but not a bona fide private membership club (other than a labor organization) that is exempt from taxation under section 501(c) of the IRS code.

Prohibited employment discrimination. It is an unlawful employment practice to discriminate in hiring or employment practices, including compensation, against an individual on the basis of the individual's race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, genetic information, refusal to submit to, or make available the results of, a genetic test, or physical or mental disability that is unrelated in nature and extent so as to reasonably preclude the performance of the employment.

Sexual orientation protections may not be construed to require or prohibit an employer to offer insurance benefits to unmarried domestic partners.

Pregnancy and childbirth. Employers must treat disabilities caused or contributed to by pregnancy or childbirth as temporary disabilities for all job-related purposes under the employer's health or temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan.

Retaliation. It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate against any of its employees or applicants for employment because he or she has opposed an unlawful employment practice or because the individual has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any fair employment investigation, proceeding or hearing.

Political intimidation. During the 90 days before an election, an employer may not exhibit in the workplace a threat, notice, or information, that, on the election or defeat of a particular ticket or candidate work will cease wholly or partly, the workplace will close, or employees' wages will be reduced. Any other threat, expressed or implied, intended to influence the political opinions or actions of the employer's employees is also prohibited.

Exceptions to Fair Employment Practice Act. Exceptions to the Act include, bona fide occupational qualifications, seniority or benefit system, dress and grooming standards directly related to the nature of employment of the employee, religious organizations where the curriculum is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular sexual orientation to perform work connected with their activities.

Recordkeeping requirements. Employers must keep each record that the Commissioner of Labor and Industry requires on wages of employees, job classification of employees, and other conditions of employment. Employers must keep the required records for the period of time that the commissioner requires, and on the basis of the required records, an employer must make each report that the commissioner requires.

Posting requirements. Maryland's Human Rights Commission has a prepared poster outlining the state's employment discrimination law.

The Commissioner of Labor and Industry must provide without charge, upon request of employers, a copy of the equal pay law and employers must keep posted conspicuously in each place of employment a copy of the law.