Do I Have a Discrimination Case at Work in California? Take This Quiz

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Updated April 2026 to reflect current FEHA discrimination standards, SB 1137's expansion of protected characteristics, and California Civil Rights Department enforcement priorities.

Something happened at work that didn’t feel right.

Maybe you were passed over for a promotion despite being more qualified. Maybe you were paid less than someone doing the same job. Or maybe you were suddenly disciplined or let go after years of positive performance, and the timing felt tied to something you disclosed, requested, or reported.

You’ve experienced something that feels unfair. The question is whether it crosses the line into illegal workplace discrimination under California law.

This quiz is designed to help you evaluate that.

California Has the Strongest Workplace Discrimination Law in the Country

The Federal Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination. California's Fair Employment and Housing Act goes further — broader protected classes, a lower employer size threshold, a more plaintiff-friendly causation standard, uncapped punitive damages, and a three-year filing window versus federal law's 300 days.

Under FEHA Government Code § 12940(a), it is unlawful for any employer with five or more employees to discriminate against a person in compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of a protected characteristic.

Under FEHA Government Code § 12940(a), it is unlawful for any employer with five or more employees to discriminate against a person because of a protected characteristic.

California's protected class list is one of the broadest in the country — covering race, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, disability (physical and mental), age (40+), religion, military status, weight and height, marital status, genetic information, and medical condition.

If any of these characteristics played a meaningful role in an adverse employment decision made against you — hiring, compensation, promotion, termination, or any other term or condition of employment — California law may give you a legal remedy.

For a full breakdown of every protected characteristic, the specific statutes that apply, and the legal framework for each claim type, see our California workplace discrimination guide.

Discrimination Rarely Announces Itself

The hardest part about workplace discrimination is that it almost never comes with a label. Employers do not write "not hired because gay" on rejection letters.

They do not document "terminated because of disability" in termination notices. They write performance, restructuring, culture fit, and attitude.

They say the selected candidate was more qualified. They call it a business decision.

California courts know this. The FEHA legal framework is specifically designed to look through the stated justification to examine the real motivation — and it gives employees the legal tools to do exactly that.

• The pretext analysis. When an employer gives a performance justification for an adverse action but the employee had a clean record until after a protected disclosure or event, the timing is evidence that the stated reason is not the real one. Courts call this pretext — and establishing it is the core of most discrimination cases.

• The comparator analysis. When a less qualified person outside the protected class received the opportunity the plaintiff was denied — the promotion, the raise, the retention in a layoff — the comparison between how the two were treated is direct evidence of differential treatment based on protected status.

• The substantial motivating factor standard. California's FEHA uses a plaintiff-friendly causation standard — the protected characteristic needs only to have been a substantial motivating factor in the adverse decision, not the only reason or even the primary reason. An employer who had both legitimate concerns and discriminatory motivation is still liable if the discrimination played a real and meaningful role.

The Factors That Determine Whether You Have a Case

California employment attorneys evaluate discrimination claims against five core factors — a protected characteristic, a material adverse action, a causal connection between the two, a pretextual employer justification, and evidence that supports the legal theory. The stronger your situation is across all five, the more viable the claim.

The quiz below evaluates your situation against these exact factors — walking you through each one in plain language and scoring your answers against the criteria attorneys actually use.

For a deeper explanation of how each factor works under FEHA, including the substantial motivating factor causation standard and how courts evaluate pretext, see our California workplace discrimination guide.

What Happens After You File a FEHA Discrimination Claim

Many employees who have experienced discrimination do not pursue it because they do not understand what pursuing it actually involves. The process is more accessible than most people assume.

Step 1 — CRD complaint. Most FEHA discrimination claims begin with a complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department. The complaint must be filed within three years of the discriminatory act. You can request an immediate right-to-sue notice, which allows you to proceed to civil court without waiting for the CRD investigation to conclude.

Step 2 — Attorney evaluation. An employment attorney reviews your facts, identifies the applicable legal theories, assesses the strength of the evidence, and advises on the realistic range of outcomes. This evaluation is typically free. Most FEHA discrimination cases are handled on contingency — the attorney is paid from the recovery, not from you upfront.

Step 3 — Investigation and discovery. Once a case is filed, discovery allows your attorney to obtain the employer's internal communications, personnel files, compensation data, and other evidence that is not publicly available. This phase frequently produces the smoking gun evidence that was not visible before litigation began.

Step 4 — Resolution. Most California employment discrimination cases resolve in settlement rather than trial. The settlement amount reflects the strength of the evidence, the employer's exposure, and the economic damages at stake. Cases that proceed to trial can produce jury awards that significantly exceed settlement values — particularly in cases involving egregious employer conduct.

The damages available. Lost wages from the date of the adverse action through resolution. Lost benefits. Emotional distress — uncapped under FEHA. Punitive damages where the employer's conduct was malicious or oppressive — uncapped. Attorney's fees, paid by the employer if you prevail. The combined damages picture in a strong FEHA discrimination case can be substantial.

Take the Quiz — Find Out If You Have a Case

The tool below evaluates your situation against the specific criteria California employment attorneys use when assessing FEHA discrimination claims. Eight questions. Three minutes. A specific result that tells you where you stand — and what to do next.

Your answers are not stored or shared. The result is generated entirely within your browser.

What the Quiz Cannot Tell You — And Why You Still Need an Attorney

The quiz above evaluates the indicators that are visible from your self-reported answers. It cannot evaluate what is in your employer's internal communications, what a former colleague would testify to, what comparative pay data discovery would reveal, or how a specific judge or jury in your jurisdiction has historically responded to similar cases.

Several of the most important elements of a FEHA discrimination case become visible only after legal proceedings begin — and only to an attorney who can analyze them with the full legal framework in mind.

The discovery process reveals what you cannot see. Employers do not voluntarily produce evidence of their discriminatory intent. Discovery forces them to. Internal emails that use code language for protected characteristics. HR communications that reveal knowledge of the discrimination.

Compensation data that shows the pay disparity across the workforce. These are the materials that transform a circumstantial case into a case with direct evidence — and they are not available until litigation begins.

The comparator analysis requires specific legal framing. Identifying comparator employees — colleagues who are similarly situated in all material respects except the protected characteristic — is a legal analysis that requires understanding how courts in your jurisdiction have defined "similarly situated." An attorney who handles FEHA cases regularly knows exactly what the comparator standard requires and how to develop that evidence.

The damages calculation is more complex than it appears. Lost wages, benefits, front pay, emotional distress, and punitive damages interact in ways that an attorney who regularly handles FEHA cases understands in detail.

The California wrongful termination payout calculator on this site gives you an educational estimate — but the actual damages picture in a discrimination case requires legal analysis.

Real Situations That Qualified as Workplace Discrimination Under FEHA

The promotion that went to the less qualified candidate. A Black engineer with eight years of experience and above-average reviews watched a white colleague with four years of experience receive the senior engineering role she had been verbally promised.

The FEHA racial discrimination claim was supported by the qualifications comparison, the verbal promise, and internal communications in which the hiring manager questioned whether she was "ready for the visibility" — language courts treat as a proxy for race-based assumptions about leadership capability.

The termination that followed a disability disclosure. A software developer disclosed his bipolar disorder to HR when requesting a schedule modification for weekly therapy appointments. Three weeks later, he received his first negative performance review in three years. He was terminated 30 days into a performance improvement plan.

The FEHA disability discrimination claim was supported by the three-year clean record, the three-week proximity between the disclosure and the first negative review, and the HR file's complete absence of any pre-disclosure performance documentation.

The pay gap that tracked gender and race. A Latina marketing manager discovered through protected workplace wage conversations that white male colleagues in substantially similar roles were paid between $18,000 and $31,000 more annually.

The combined FEHA sex discrimination and race discrimination claim, combined with a California Equal Pay Act claim, produced a recovery that reflected the intersectional nature of the pay disparity — larger than either theory alone would have supported.

The accommodation denial that became a termination. A warehouse supervisor with a chronic back condition requested a modified lifting restriction. Her employer denied the request without exploring alternatives and terminated her two months later for "performance."

The FEHA disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, failure to engage in the interactive process, and wrongful termination claims — all arising from the same set of facts — produced overlapping legal theories with significant combined damages exposure.

The age discrimination disguised as restructuring. A 59-year-old marketing director was told her position was being eliminated in a company-wide restructuring. Of the seven positions eliminated in the "restructuring," six were held by employees over 50. All seven were replaced within six months by employees under 40.

The FEHA age discrimination claim combined with the federal ADEA claim — the statistical pattern, the replacement evidence, and the pretextual restructuring justification together established a textbook age discrimination case.

The Three-Year Deadline — Why Acting Now Matters

California's FEHA requires that a discrimination complaint be filed with the California Civil Rights Department within three years of the discriminatory act. For federal Title VII claims through the EEOC, the deadline is 300 days. For some specific Labor Code retaliation claims, the deadline is one year.

These deadlines are unforgiving. Missing them eliminates legal options that cannot be recovered — no matter how strong the underlying discrimination was, and no matter how clearly the employer violated the law.

If your situation involves potential FEHA discrimination, the time to act is before the deadline — not at it. Evidence degrades, witnesses move on, and document retention periods expire. Every month that passes without action narrows the evidentiary foundation available to support your case.

The California Civil Rights Department accepts complaints online. Filing costs nothing and creates an official record of the discrimination that triggers a government response — even before you decide whether to pursue civil litigation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does FEHA apply to independent contractors? FEHA's discrimination protections generally apply to employees — not independent contractors. However, California's AB5 law has reclassified many workers who were labeled as contractors as employees under California law. If you were classified as an independent contractor but believe you were actually an employee, that misclassification question should be the first issue an attorney evaluates.

Can I bring a discrimination claim if I resigned rather than being fired? Yes — if the working conditions were made so intolerable by the discrimination that a reasonable person in your position would have felt compelled to resign. This is called constructive termination, and it is treated as a termination for legal purposes. The resignation does not waive your discrimination claim.

What if my employer has an anti-discrimination policy? The existence of an anti-discrimination policy is not a defense to a discrimination claim — it is a minimum baseline that employers are expected to maintain. When an employer with an anti-discrimination policy discriminates anyway, the policy's existence does not eliminate liability. It may, in some circumstances, affect the punitive damages analysis.

Do I need to have filed an HR complaint before I can sue? For most FEHA discrimination claims, an internal HR complaint is not a legal prerequisite to filing a CRD complaint or pursuing civil litigation. However, having filed an internal complaint significantly strengthens a retaliation claim — and it creates a document that establishes when the employer had knowledge of the discrimination.

What if my discrimination case involves multiple protected characteristics? California's FEHA recognizes intersectional discrimination — adverse treatment based on the combination of two or more protected characteristics. A Black transgender woman who experiences discrimination targeting the intersection of her race and gender identity may have a stronger combined claim than either theory alone would support. An attorney can evaluate how multiple protected characteristics interact in your specific facts.

Talk to a Vetted Employment Attorney — Free Referral

If the quiz above indicated that your situation has strong or moderate discrimination case indicators — or if your situation involves the kind of facts described on this page — the next step is a free case evaluation with a vetted California employment attorney.

1000Attorneys.com is a California State Bar Certified Lawyer Referral Service (LRS #0128), accredited by the American Bar Association, established in 2005.

We connect California employees with vetted employment attorneys who handle FEHA discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wrongful termination cases throughout the state.

Disclosure

1000Attorneys.com is a California State Bar Certified Lawyer Referral Service (LRS #0128), accredited by the American Bar Association, established in 2005. We connect California employees with vetted employment attorneys who handle FEHA discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wrongful termination cases throughout the state. If you want to understand the full legal framework before speaking to an attorney, our California workplace discrimination guide covers every protected class, every claim type, and the complete FEHA legal framework in depth.