By Joanna Colosimo
Blog Overview: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released new guidance on discrimination against American workers. This guidance includes examples of potential discrimination and additional information for employers, employees, and applicants.
On November 19, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a one-page technical assistance document titled “Discrimination Against American Workers is Against the Law” on their website. This document, which is in PDF format to allow employers to more easily post it, includes a QR code that leads to information on how to file a charge of employment discrimination. The agency also updated its national origin discrimination landing page on the agency’s website.
This guidance outlines Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s (Title VII) provisions related to national origin discrimination, noting that Title VII protections apply equally to all racial, ethnic, and national origin groups. It also provides some examples for employers, employees, and applicants to consider.
Examples of unlawful national origin discrimination provided by EEOC include the following:
- Discriminatory Job Advertisements, such as a job advertisement that requires or prefers H-1B applicants.
- Disparate Treatment related to hiring, firing, and job assignments, promotions, or compensation based on national origin. The guidance gives examples of disparate treatment such as firing an American worker over a lower-paid visa guest worker or making the hiring process more difficult for members of a particular national origin compared to others.
- Harassment, such as when an employee is subjected to ‘unwelcome’ remarks or conduct based on their national origin.
- Retaliation, such as retaliating against an employee for participating in an EEOC investigation or filing an EEOC charge.
The guidance reaffirms that common business reasons, such as customer preference or lower cost of labor, are not legitimate reasons for an employer to “hire foreign workers over American workers.” The accompanying press release highlights the following comment from EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas: “Nothing justifies illegal national origin discrimination – whether rooted in cost of labor, customer preferences, or stereotypes.”
It is worth noting that EEOC continues to emphasize disparate treatment as an example of how employers can put Title VII into practice. Employers should think about effective ways to assess employment outcomes related to national origin and look for opportunities to review these results.
DCI will continue to monitor EEOC’s activity and provide updates as needed.
