Are employers allowed to require job applicants to have a certain level of education or experience?

In California, employers are technically allowed to require job applicants to have a certain level of education or experience, but they must be careful in how they approach this requirement. Under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), employers are prohibited from discriminating against applicants on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, religion, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, or military or veteran status. This law extends to any form of job qualification that may disproportionately exclude certain applicants. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) takes the view that requiring applicants to have a certain level of education or experience might lead to discrimination. For example, if an employer requires that a job applicant have a college degree, it may disproportionately exclude minorities, who are less likely to have college degrees. Therefore, employers must be careful to ensure that their education and experience requirements are relevant to the job position and not unnecessarily exclusionary. In addition, employers must be willing to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants unless doing so would create an undue hardship for the business. Ultimately, the most important thing for employers to remember is that job qualifications cannot be used to discriminate against any type of applicant.

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Are employers allowed to require job applicants to have a certain level of education or experience?

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