Yes, you can sue your employer, but only for reasons the law recognizes: discrimination, unpaid wages or overtime, denied medical leave, retaliation for reporting misconduct, or a firing that violates a contract or public policy. Whether your case survives depends on three things — whether your employer is large enough to be covered by the relevant law, whether you can prove what happened, and whether you file within the deadline, which for some claims is as short as 30 days.
Discrimination and Harassment
Federal law prohibits employers from treating workers differently because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers employers with 15 or more employees.1eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1606 – Guidelines on Discrimination Because of National Origin The Americans with Disabilities Act adds protections for workers with qualifying disabilities at employers of the same size. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers 40 and older at employers with at least 20 employees.2U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Age Discrimination If your employer is smaller than the applicable threshold, federal anti-discrimination law does not reach it, though state law may.
You cannot walk straight into court with a federal discrimination claim. You must first file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which investigates and either resolves the matter or issues a Notice of Right to Sue giving you permission to take the case to court.3U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit You can start a charge online through the EEOC portal, visit a local office, or mail a signed letter describing what happened.4U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination
Harassment is a form of discrimination and follows the same framework. To be actionable, the conduct must be severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment, or it must result in a tangible job consequence like being fired or demoted. A hostile work environment counts as illegal discrimination even without direct economic harm.5Legal Information Institute. Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson Employers can be held liable when they knew or should have known about harassment and failed to stop it. Save emails, text messages, and any written complaints; those are what carry these cases.
The ADA does more than prohibit disability discrimination. It requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations unless doing so would cause significant difficulty or expense, and it requires them to engage in an interactive conversation about what would work. Refusing to participate in that process at all can create liability.6U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the ADA Common accommodations include modified schedules, ergonomic equipment, reassignment to a vacant position, or remote work. Firing someone for requesting a reasonable accommodation is the kind of case that lands in court.
Unpaid Wages and Overtime
The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the federal floor for pay. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, though many states set higher rates.7U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws The FLSA requires overtime at one and a half times your regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek.8eCFR. 29 CFR Part 553 – Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to Employees of State and Local Governments
The most common wage lawsuit involves misclassification. Employers sometimes label workers “exempt” from overtime when they don’t actually qualify. Only genuinely executive, administrative, or professional employees can legally be denied overtime, and the exempt employee must earn at least $684 per week under the rule the Department of Labor is currently enforcing after a court blocked a 2024 attempt to raise it.9U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions If your employer calls you salaried-exempt but you spend most of your time on non-managerial work and earn less than that threshold, you may be owed back overtime.
A related problem: employers classify workers as independent contractors to avoid minimum wage, overtime, and payroll taxes. The Department of Labor’s “economic reality” test looks at whether a worker is genuinely in business for themselves or economically dependent on the employer, with the most weight going to how much control the employer exercises and whether the worker has a real chance to profit or lose money through their own initiative.10Federal Register. Employee or Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act If your employer sets your schedule, provides your tools, and prohibits you from working elsewhere, you probably look more like an employee regardless of what your contract says.
Winning an FLSA claim can mean more than the back pay itself. The law allows liquidated damages that double the unpaid amount, plus attorney’s fees and court costs.11U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay When large numbers of workers experience the same violation, the claims often proceed as collective actions.
Denied or Punished Medical Leave
The Family and Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees to up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for serious health conditions, caring for a sick family member, or bonding with a new child. FMLA applies to employers with 50 or more employees, and the worker must have been employed for at least 12 months and worked at least 1,250 hours in the prior year.12U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)
FMLA suits fall into two buckets. Interference claims arise when your employer blocks or discourages you from taking leave you’re entitled to: denying a valid request, pressuring you to return early, or counting leave against you in performance reviews. Retaliation claims arise when your employer punishes you for using your leave, such as firing you shortly after you return. Federal law prohibits both.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 2615 – Prohibited Acts The law guarantees your right to return to the same position or an equivalent one, so getting demoted or laid off shortly after medical leave is a pattern employment lawyers see often. Save your leave request, any written approvals, and every communication from your employer about your absence.
Retaliation for Complaining
Retaliation is one of the most common charges filed with the EEOC. Every federal anti-discrimination law contains an anti-retaliation provision: your employer cannot punish you for filing a discrimination complaint, participating in an investigation, or opposing practices you reasonably believe are illegal.14U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues
To prove retaliation, you need three things: you engaged in a protected activity, your employer took an adverse action against you, and there’s a connection between the two. Timing is often the strongest evidence. If you filed an internal complaint on Monday and got fired on Friday, most juries draw the obvious conclusion. Retaliation isn’t limited to termination either. Any employer action that would discourage a reasonable employee from making a complaint qualifies, including actions outside the workplace itself.15Legal Information Institute. Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White Schedule changes designed to create hardship, exclusion from meetings, and reassignment to undesirable duties can all count.
Protected activity goes beyond filing an EEOC charge. Reporting harassment to a supervisor, refusing an order that would result in discrimination, requesting a disability accommodation, and even asking coworkers about their pay to uncover wage discrimination all qualify.16U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retaliation
Wrongful Termination
Most American workers are employed “at will,” meaning either side can end the relationship at any time for any legal reason. But a surprising number of reasons are illegal. Wrongful termination claims arise when a firing violates anti-discrimination law, breaches a contract, or punishes an employee for doing something the law protects.
A majority of states recognize a public policy exception to at-will employment. Under this doctrine, you can’t be fired for refusing to break the law (such as declining to falsify records), reporting illegal activity like fraudulent accounting or safety violations, exercising a legal right such as filing a workers’ compensation claim or serving on a jury, or performing a public duty like responding to a military reserve obligation. Specific categories vary by state.17National Conference of State Legislatures. At-Will Employment – Overview
If you have a written employment contract that limits when and how you can be fired, a termination that violates those terms gives you a breach-of-contract claim. Contracts don’t have to be formal documents. Roughly three-quarters of states recognize implied contracts created through employee handbooks, company policies, or consistent verbal assurances. If your handbook says employees will only be terminated for cause and outlines a progressive discipline process, firing you without following those steps may violate that implied agreement.
Mass layoffs carry their own rule. The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers to give 60 days’ advance written notice before plant closings or mass layoffs that meet certain size thresholds.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC Ch. 23 – Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification When an employer skips the notice, affected workers can recover back pay and benefits for up to 60 days.
Whistleblower Claims
Several federal laws protect employees who report fraud, safety violations, or other illegal conduct. Employees of publicly traded companies who report securities fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, or SEC violations are protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, whether they report to a federal agency, Congress, or an internal supervisor. If your employer retaliates, you must file with OSHA within 180 days.19U.S. Department of Labor. Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) – 18 U.S.C. 1514A Successful claims can result in reinstatement, back pay, and attorney’s fees.20Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Filing Whistleblower Complaints Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
The False Claims Act allows private citizens to file lawsuits on the government’s behalf against companies that defraud federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid, or defense contracts.21Department of Justice: Civil Division. The False Claims Act In these qui tam suits, the whistleblower receives 15% to 25% of any recovery if the government joins the case, and 25% to 30% if the government declines and the whistleblower proceeds alone.22Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 U.S. Code 3730 – Civil Actions for False Claims The Act separately prohibits retaliation against employees who report fraud.
Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act protects employees from being fired or punished for reporting unsafe working conditions, filing an OSHA complaint, or participating in a safety inspection.23U.S. Department of Labor. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), Section 11(c) The deadline is tight: 30 days after the retaliation. State whistleblower laws may extend protections further, particularly in healthcare and environmental services.
Deadlines That Can End Your Case
Missing a deadline is the single easiest way to lose a case you should have won. The clock starts when the adverse action happens, not when you decide to do something about it. In harassment cases, the deadline typically runs from the last incident.
- EEOC discrimination charge: 180 days from the discriminatory act, or 300 days if your state has its own anti-discrimination agency, which most do.24U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
- Right-to-sue letter: 90 days to file in court once the EEOC issues the notice. No extensions.3U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
- FLSA wage claims: two years from the violation, extended to three if the violation was willful.25Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 255 – Statute of Limitations
- Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower complaint: 180 days from the retaliation to file with OSHA.19U.S. Department of Labor. Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) – 18 U.S.C. 1514A
- OSHA safety retaliation: 30 days.23U.S. Department of Labor. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), Section 11(c)
If you think you have a claim, talk to an attorney before the shortest applicable deadline expires, even if you’re not sure you want to file.
If You Signed an Arbitration Agreement
Millions of American workers have signed employment agreements containing mandatory arbitration clauses, often buried in onboarding paperwork. These clauses require disputes to be resolved through private arbitration rather than in court. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld them, including provisions that waive the right to join a class or collective action.
An arbitration clause doesn’t leave you without recourse. You can still pursue your claim, just before a private arbitrator instead of a judge or jury. The process is typically faster but less transparent. One major exception, added in 2022: the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act lets employees asserting sexual assault or sexual harassment claims choose to go to court instead, even if they previously agreed to arbitrate. The worker makes that choice, not the employer.
For other claims, an employment attorney can review whether the arbitration agreement is enforceable. Courts occasionally strike down clauses that are unconscionably one-sided, such as terms that limit the employee’s remedies while preserving the employer’s own right to litigate.
What You Can Recover
Federal employment cases offer several forms of relief, but the amounts are more limited than most people expect. For successful Title VII, ADA, or ADEA claims, courts can order reinstatement, back pay covering wages lost from the date of the violation, and attorney’s fees.26Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 2000e-5 – Enforcement Provisions Back pay is limited to two years before the date you filed your EEOC charge.
For intentional discrimination under Title VII or the ADA, you can also recover compensatory damages for emotional distress and punitive damages for especially reckless conduct. Those damages are capped based on employer size:
- 15 to 100 employees: $50,000 combined cap
- 101 to 200 employees: $100,000
- 201 to 500 employees: $200,000
- More than 500 employees: $300,000
The caps apply to compensatory and punitive damages combined, per plaintiff, not per claim.27Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment Back pay and attorney’s fees sit outside the caps. For wage claims under the FLSA, the math is different: unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling what you’re owed, along with attorney’s fees.11U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay
Many employment attorneys work on contingency, taking a percentage of whatever you recover, typically 30% to 40%. Others charge hourly, particularly for cases with uncertain damages. Court filing fees, service of process, and deposition costs add up, though they’re modest compared to attorney’s fees. If you win a federal employment case, the court can order your employer to pay your attorney’s fees, which significantly changes the economics for both sides.