For most of recorded history, an employer could refuse to hire someone for any reason at all.
In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination in the defense industry and federal agencies.1 The order came after labor leader A. Philip Randolph threatened a march on Washington by 100,000 Black workers. It was the first federal action against employment discrimination in American history.
The broader legal framework took another two decades to arrive. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employers from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.2 The law created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce its provisions.
Before 1964, employers in most of the United States could legally refuse to hire, promote, or retain workers for reasons that had nothing to do with their ability to perform the job. At-Will Employment gave employers the legal right to terminate workers without cause, and no federal statute prevented them from exercising that right on racial or religious grounds.
The Civil Rights Act did not emerge in isolation. The Fair Employment Practice Committee, created by Roosevelt's 1941 order, had no enforcement power and was dissolved in 1946.3 Several states passed their own fair employment laws in the interim. New York enacted the first state-level anti-discrimination employment statute in 1945.4
The 1964 law initially covered employers with twenty-five or more employees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 extended coverage to employers with fifteen or more workers and gave the EEOC the power to file lawsuits.5 Subsequent legislation expanded the categories of protected status. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 covered workers over forty. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibited discrimination based on disability.
Most industrialized nations now maintain some form of employment anti-discrimination law. The European Union's Employment Equality Directive of 2000 established a common framework across member states.6 In Japan, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was enacted in 1985 and strengthened with enforcement provisions in 1997.7