FAQs

Employment discrimination is a serious problem that affects many people in the workforce. Discrimination can take many forms, including unequal pay, harassment, failure to hire qualified candidates, firing of workers based on their legally protected traits rather than the quality of their work, and retaliation. When employees experience discrimination, they often suffer significant harm, including emotional distress, lost earnings, and damage to their careers.

To help victims of discrimination seek justice, the law allows them to sue their employers for damages. However, in federal and many states’ laws, there are caps on the amount of damages that victims can recover in these lawsuits. Caps on damages limit the amount of money that victims can receive, regardless of the severity of the harm they have suffered.

Caps on damages in employment discrimination cases are unfair to workers, fail to deter illegal discrimination, and do not reflect modern workplace realities. Congress should eliminate them.

Caps on damages hurt victims of discrimination by limiting their ability to recover for the harm they have suffered.

No, that’s the problem. Caps on damages do not sufficiently deter employers from engaging in discrimination.

Caps on damages are arbitrary and do not reflect the actual harm that victims of discrimination have suffered. The amount of damages that a victim should receive should be based on the severity of the harm they have suffered as a jury determines, not an arbitrary cap set by a legislature. The federal caps set in 1991 also failed to keep up with inflation, meaning that it gets cheaper and cheaper every year for employers to discriminate against workers.

Eliminating caps on damages will promote equality in the workplace by providing victims of discrimination with the full compensation they deserve, and employers with the incentive they need to comply with the law. Juries are the voice of the community. They tell employers through their verdicts that discrimination will not be tolerated and that they will be held accountable for their actions.

About half the states (mostly blue states) have state laws that don’t have damage caps. Workers discriminated against in Republican states facing the same injustices as workers in states without damage caps get less money in trial, but also in settlements. The same rules should apply to workers no matter which state they live in. This is particularly important now as many remote workers don’t live in the same state as their employers and coworkers.

No. Proving intentional discrimination would remain difficult and jury verdicts are subject to review by trial court judges and on appeal.

No. Attorneys fees are awarded separately under Title VII.