To sue your employer, you generally need to identify a specific legal violation, file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or an equivalent state agency within a short deadline, and receive a Notice of Right to Sue before you can take the case to court. Learning how to sue your employer starts with two threshold questions: whether what happened to you is actually illegal rather than just unfair, and whether you signed an arbitration agreement that keeps disputes out of court.
Do You Have a Legal Claim
Employment in the United States is generally at-will, meaning your employer can let you go for almost any reason. The exceptions are specific. Federal and state laws single out particular categories of employer conduct as illegal, and your case has to fit inside one of them.
Discrimination
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in hiring, firing, promotions, pay, and other workplace decisions. It applies to employers with 15 or more employees.1U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
Other federal statutes cover other characteristics. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers 40 and older at employers with at least 20 employees.2U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against qualified people with disabilities and requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations.3U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The ADA: Your Employment Rights as an Individual With a Disability The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, effective in 2023, requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, and prohibits forcing leave when another accommodation would work.4U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
Harassment
Harassment becomes illegal when it is based on a protected characteristic and is either severe or frequent enough to create a hostile work environment. A single offhand comment usually won’t clear the bar. A single act of offensive physical contact can. Sexual harassment covers both a supervisor conditioning job benefits on sexual favors and the broader hostile-environment claim involving unwelcome sexual conduct from supervisors, coworkers, or outside parties like clients.
Retaliation
Retaliation is punishment for doing something the law protects: reporting discrimination or safety violations, participating in an investigation, filing a workers’ compensation claim, or whistleblowing on illegal practices. Firing, demotion, pay cuts, and reassignment to worse shifts can all qualify. The test is whether the employer’s action would deter a reasonable person from complaining. Retaliation is the most frequently filed charge with the EEOC.
Wage and Hour Violations
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires nonexempt employees to receive overtime at one and a half times their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek.5eCFR. 29 CFR Part 778 – Overtime Compensation Common violations include misclassifying workers as exempt, shaving hours off timecards, requiring off-the-clock work, and failing to pay the federal minimum wage. Wage claims work differently from discrimination claims in one important way: you don’t have to file with the EEOC first. You can file with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or go straight to court. You have two years from the violation to file, or three if the employer’s conduct was willful.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 255 – Statute of Limitations
Wrongful Termination
Wrongful termination means being fired for a reason that violates a specific law or a fundamental public policy. Your employer cannot fire you for refusing to break the law, for exercising a legal right such as voting or jury duty, or for reporting illegal activity. You also don’t have to be literally fired. If your employer made conditions so intolerable that no reasonable person would stay, and you resigned, that can be treated as a firing under a doctrine called constructive discharge. The threshold is high; ordinary dissatisfaction won’t qualify.
Check for an Arbitration Agreement First
Before doing anything else, pull out the paperwork you signed when hired. Many employers include a mandatory arbitration clause in employment agreements or onboarding documents. If you signed one, it likely requires you to resolve disputes through private arbitration rather than in court. The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that these agreements are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act, including waivers of the right to join a class or collective action.7Supreme Court of the United States. Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis
There is one significant exception. Claims involving sexual harassment or sexual assault can go to court regardless of any arbitration agreement signed before the dispute arose. A 2022 federal law gives the person making the claim the power to void the pre-dispute agreement for those specific disputes.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 9 U.S. Code 402 – No Validity or Enforceability For everything else, an enforceable arbitration clause will generally keep you out of court. Some clauses have been struck down for being one-sided or buried in fine print, but courts enforce them far more often than they invalidate them.
File With the EEOC and Watch the Deadlines
For discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, federal law requires you to file a charge with the EEOC before suing in court.9U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing A Charge of Discrimination Equal Pay Act claims are the only exception; those can go straight to court. Many states have their own enforcement agencies that coordinate with the EEOC, and filing with one usually counts as filing with the other.
You have 180 calendar days from the discriminatory act to file your charge, extended to 300 days if your state has its own agency enforcing a similar anti-discrimination law. For age discrimination charges, the 300-day extension applies only when a state law prohibits age discrimination and a state authority enforces it. A local ordinance alone won’t trigger it.10U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination Miss these deadlines and you lose the right to bring the federal claim, no matter how strong the evidence.
Once the charge is filed, the EEOC notifies your employer and investigates. Mediation may be offered early on. Whether or not mediation happens, the EEOC eventually issues a Notice of Right to Sue. For Title VII and ADA claims, you need that letter before filing suit, and you have only 90 days from receiving it to file.1U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit You can also request an early right-to-sue letter after 180 days if you want to move to court before the investigation wraps up.11U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Can Expect After You File a Charge
Age discrimination claims under the ADEA work differently. You don’t need a right-to-sue letter. You can file in court any time starting 60 days after the EEOC charge was filed.12eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1626 – Procedures, Age Discrimination in Employment Act
Gather Evidence Early
Any attorney’s first question will be whether you can prove what happened. Start collecting evidence as early as you can, ideally while you still have access to your workplace accounts and files. Useful documentation includes:
- Your offer letter, employment contract, and any arbitration or non-compete agreements you signed.
- The employee handbook and any written policies on discipline, harassment, or discrimination.
- Performance reviews, commendations, disciplinary write-ups, and performance improvement plans.
- Pay stubs, timecards, and records showing your rate of pay and hours worked.
- Emails, text messages, voicemails, and chat logs relating to the illegal conduct or the timeline of events.
- A personal journal of relevant events with dates, times, locations, and names of witnesses.
- Names and contact information for colleagues who saw what happened or experienced similar treatment.
Save everything somewhere your employer cannot reach. If you’re using a work email account or company device, forward relevant messages to a personal account before you lose access.
What the Lawsuit Looks Like
Once you have a right-to-sue letter (or don’t need one), you file a complaint with the appropriate court. The complaint lays out the facts, identifies the laws your employer violated, and states what you’re asking for. The federal civil complaint filing fee is $350.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1914 – District Court Filing and Miscellaneous Fees State court fees vary. Your employer is then formally served and files an answer.
The case enters discovery, the pre-trial phase where both sides exchange evidence. You’ll answer written questions, produce documents, and possibly sit for a deposition — sworn testimony given outside the courtroom. Discovery tends to be the longest and most expensive part of the case, often stretching from several months to over a year.
After discovery closes, your employer will almost certainly file a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to throw out the case without a trial. The argument is that even viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to you, no genuine factual dispute exists and the employer wins as a matter of law.14LII / Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56 – Summary Judgment This is where employment lawsuits most commonly die, which is why the evidence you gathered early matters so much. If the motion is denied, the case moves toward trial. Most cases settle first. Actual employment trials are uncommon.
What You Can Recover
What’s available depends on which law your claim falls under, the size of your employer, and the severity of the conduct.
Back pay covers wages and benefits lost from the illegal act through the resolution of your case. If returning to your old job isn’t realistic, a court may award front pay to compensate for future lost earnings.
Compensatory damages cover non-economic harm like emotional distress. Punitive damages punish employers whose conduct was especially reckless or malicious. Both are available in Title VII and ADA cases involving intentional discrimination, but federal law caps the combined total based on employer size:
- 15 to 100 employees: $50,000
- 101 to 200 employees: $100,000
- 201 to 500 employees: $200,000
- More than 500 employees: $300,000
These caps apply per complaining party and cover future losses, emotional pain, and other non-economic harm combined with any punitive damages.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment Back pay is not capped. Age discrimination claims under the ADEA do not allow compensatory or punitive damages, but they do allow liquidated damages.
For FLSA violations, you can recover unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling your recovery.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties Employers can reduce or eliminate liquidated damages by proving good faith, but that’s a difficult defense when the underpayment is clear.
Most federal employment statutes, including Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, and the FLSA, let a successful employee recover reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs from the employer.
What It Costs You
Most employment attorneys take discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront, and the lawyer takes a percentage of what you recover, typically 30% to 40%. If you lose, you generally owe nothing for attorney’s fees, though you may still owe court filing fees and other out-of-pocket costs the lawyer advanced. Wage and hour cases often work similarly, especially because the FLSA’s fee-shifting provision means the employer pays attorney’s fees if you win. In an initial consultation, ask exactly how fees are structured, what expenses you’re responsible for if the case is unsuccessful, and whether the contingency percentage changes if the case goes to trial rather than settling.
Then there is the tax side, which surprises people. Damages received for physical injury or physical sickness are excluded from gross income. Everything else, including emotional distress damages from a discrimination claim without physical injury, is taxable.17Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments Punitive damages are always taxable. Back pay is taxable as wages and subject to payroll withholding. If your settlement is substantial, talk to a tax professional before signing; how the settlement is allocated across categories can meaningfully change what you keep.