If the employer needs to advertise for a position, it should choose the wording it uses in an advertisement carefully. Employers should avoid ambiguous or misleading language which may imply an illegal bias toward any particular group of applicants. It is a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act to disclose a preference in an employment advertisement regarding sex, age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, or sexual orientation.6 If the employer is a federal contractor or subcontractor, the employer may have obligations to advertise the position with the local job service and use the words “equal employment opportunity employer” in an employment advertisement.
CREDITS: This post is an excerpt from An Employer’s Guide to Employment Law Issues in Minnesota, originally produced through a collaborative effort between the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and Lindquist & Vennum, P.L.L.P.
This post is part of a series of posts on hiring an employee in Minnesota.
6. Minn. Stat. § 363A.08 subd. 4(3) (2007).
