8 Questions You Should Never Ask in an Interview

Interviews are a time to get to know job applicants both professionally and personally. That is, you get the chance to learn about their industry experience, along with bits about their personality to see if they’d be a good fit with the rest of the team. However, according to federal and state employment laws, there are certain questions that you cannot ask to prevent discrimination. Here are eight of them.

• Are you married? Talking about marital status during an interview is illegal because it could reveal sexual orientation, which is a hot topic for discrimination. However, once a person is hired, you can inquire about a spouse for insurance purposes.
• Do you have kids? Planning and raising a family is well within everyone’s rights, so discriminating against individuals with young children is illegal. If you’d like to know a person’s schedule, you can ask about his or her available hours or if he or she is available for travel.
• What country do you come from? So long as a person can prove that he or she is legally authorized to work in America, you are not allowed to inquire about his or her country of origin.
• What is your religion? While you cannot inquire about religion, you can ask about availability. For instance, a job may require working on weekends, so you can ask a person if he or she would be available on Saturday and/or Sunday.
• How long have you been working? You cannot ask anything that would divulge a person’s age. However, you can ask how many years of experience a person has within a certain industry.
• Are you in debt? You have no business asking about someone’s personal finances and it is illegal to obtain someone’s credit history without first asking permission.
• Have you been arrested? While you can ask if a person has ever been convicted of a crime, you cannot ask about the details of his or her arrest record.
• What type of discharge did you get from the military? A person’s military merits are his or her own. However, you can inquire about training, education and experience gained while in the military that would directly translate to the job at hand.

Even businesses that are careful to avoid discriminating against employees can harbor cases of discrimination, harassment and unfair treatment. Ask your independent insurance agent how employment practices liability insurance can help protect your business from similar incidents.

We’ve got you covered. Call KJE Consultants, LLC at (866) 260-5330 for more information on New York business insurance.