Your rights when you apply: what they can ask, and what they can't

Federal law makes it illegal to discriminate in hiring based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and transgender status), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information. That's the EEOC's list.

Size matters for some of it. Most of these rules apply to employers with 15 or more employees, and the age rules start at 20 or more, per the EEOC. Many states cover smaller employers too.

Asking isn't automatically illegal. But the EEOC says questions about protected traits can be used as evidence of discrimination unless there's a real business reason for them. So most careful employers just don't ask about:

• Your age or the year you graduated high school
• Whether you're pregnant, married, or planning to have kids
• Your religion or which holidays you observe
• Where you or your family are from
• Health conditions, medications, or disabilities
• Your family's medical history
• Whether you've ever been arrested

Before they make you a job offer, an employer can't ask about disabilities or require a medical exam. They can ask whether you can do the specific things the job requires. After an offer, a medical exam is allowed if everyone offered the same job gets the same exam. The EEOC explains it here.

Your genetic information, including your family's medical history, is off-limits under GINA.

When an employer uses a background check company, the Fair Credit Reporting Act sets the steps. The FTC lays them out:

• They have to tell you they might use a report, and get your permission in writing.
• Before they turn you down because of it, they have to give you a copy of the report and a summary of your rights.
• If they do turn you down, they have to tell you, including which company made the report and that you can dispute it.

Reports get things wrong: wrong person, old records, a case that was dismissed. If yours has a mistake, dispute it with the company that made it. That's your right under the same law.

An arrest isn't proof of anything. The EEOC puts it plainly: an arrest doesn't establish that criminal conduct occurred, and blanket policies that screen out everyone with a record can run afoul of civil rights law.

Federal agencies can't ask about criminal history until after a conditional job offer, under the Fair Chance Act. Many states and cities have their own "ban the box" laws that push the question later for other employers too. Check yours.

Some states and cities ban employers from asking what you made before, so an old underpaid job doesn't follow you. Colorado is one. If yours has a ban and they ask anyway, you can talk about what you're looking for instead. The salary page has how to find that number.

Most private employers can't make you take a lie detector test to get hired. That's the Employee Polygraph Protection Act.

More hiring now runs through automated tools. Rules here are new and uneven. In New York City, an employer using one has to have it audited for bias and tell candidates. Expect more places to follow.

You don't have to answer a question that shouldn't have been asked, and you don't have to make it a standoff either. A few ways to handle it:

• Answer the real concern. If they ask about kids, they're usually worried about schedule. "I can meet the schedule this job needs" answers that without handing over your life.
• Redirect. "I'm not sure how that connects to the role, but here's what I can tell you about how I'd handle the work."
• Ask. "Can you help me understand how that relates to the job?" Sometimes that alone fixes it.

Either way, write it down afterward: the question, who asked, and when. If it turns into something, notes from the same day matter.

You can file a charge with the EEOC. The clock is short: generally 180 days, or 300 days if your state or city has its own agency enforcing a similar law. The EEOC's page on time limits has the details. Your state's civil rights or labor agency is another place to start.