Questions Not to Ask

April 13, 2006

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If you have 15 or more employees, you are subject to federal laws prohibiting discrimination in hiring. Many states also have laws that mimic federal discrimination laws and apply them to smaller employers, sometimes even those employers who have one employee or more. Therefore, you are limited in what types of questions you can ask. Even if you are not subject to laws prohibiting unfair inquiries, we recommend that you stay away from them.

Preemployment interviews have traditionally been instruments for eliminating, at an early stage, unqualified persons from consideration for employment. They have also, unfortunately, often been used in such a way as to restrict or deny employment opportunities for women and members of minority groups.

In seeking information from a job applicant, you should ask yourself:

Will the answer to this question, if used in making a selection, have an inequitable effect in screening out minorities or members of one sex?
Is this information really needed to judge an applicant's competence or qualifications for the job in question?

Basically, stay away from any question that concerns race, religion, age, ethnic background, gender, marital status, or national origin. Some municipalities have local statutes that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual lifestyle or preference, or smoking habits. If it has nothing to do with the job, don't ask.

Some questions you might ask are things you might consider small talk and aren't meant to get information for use in discrimination. It doesn't matter. Don't ask them. Be on guard even when you're chatting informally. (We recommend that you stick with conversations about the weather and other neutral topics.)

Some questions that could be considered discriminatory:

Are you married?
What is that accent you have?
Where is your spouse from?
Are you engaged?
Do you have children?
Where are you from?
Were you born here?
What is your ethnic heritage?
What church do you go to?
How old are you?
When were you born?
When did you graduate from high school?

Warning

If an applicant should offer some information voluntarily about one of these areas, we recommend that you ignore it. Don't respond to it and don't follow up on it. Don't even include it in your notes. It could be used to prove you discriminated if there is a notation about the applicant's protected status.