EEOC Rules for Job Ads: What Employers Can and Cannot Say
A job posting is an employment practice. The EEOC's guidance on prohibited practices covers job advertisements in the same document that covers applications, hiring, promotions, and pay.
A phrase that reads as ordinary marketing copy can carry legal exposure if it signals who should or should not apply.
This article covers what the EEOC prohibits in job advertisements, how recruitment methods create exposure even when no individual posting is at fault, and what a review process should look for.
(Important: This article is general information about published EEOC guidance and is not legal advice. Consult employment counsel about your specific policies and postings.)
What the EEOC prohibits in job advertisements
The EEOC states that it is illegal for an employer to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference for someone, or discourages someone from applying, because of race, color, religion, sex (including transgender status, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information.
Two words in that sentence do the work.
The first is "preference." An ad does not have to exclude anyone to be a problem. Signaling that one group is the intended audience is enough to raise the question.
The second is "discourages." The standard reaches wording that never mentions a protected characteristic directly.
If the effect of the language is that qualified people read the ad and conclude the role is not open to them, the wording is in scope.
Age-coded language in job postings
The EEOC's own example is a help-wanted ad seeking "recent college graduates." The agency notes that this phrasing may discourage people over 40 from applying and may violate the law.
The phrase does not mention age. It works as a proxy for it. Wording that describes a stage of life will carry the same risk, and the fix is usually to state the underlying requirement directly. If the role needs two years of experience, say two years of experience.
The EEOC applies a separate standard to age. Neutral policies and practices that have a disproportionately negative impact on applicants or employees age 40 or older are prohibited unless they are based on a reasonable factor other than age.
That is a different test from the one applied to other protected characteristics, and it is worth knowing which one your requirement has to satisfy.
Gendered wording and stated preferences
The EEOC's second example in the same passage is an ad seeking "females," which the agency notes may discourage men from applying.
The rule runs in both directions. A stated preference for any group based on a protected characteristic is prohibited regardless of which group is named and regardless of the employer's intent. Employers writing postings meant to widen a candidate pool sometimes reach for language naming the group they hope to attract. That approach targets the wrong variable.
The reliable method is to describe the work, the skills required, and the terms of employment with enough precision that anyone qualified can see themselves in the role.
How recruitment methods create exposure
The EEOC treats recruitment as a separate category from advertising. It is illegal to recruit new employees in a way that discriminates on the basis of a protected characteristic.
The example the agency gives is instructive because no posting is involved at all. An employer that relies on word-of-mouth recruitment through a workforce that is mostly Hispanic may violate the law if the result is that almost all new hires are Hispanic.
Referral programs are common and inexpensive, which is why this one gets missed. What the EEOC's example turns on is the composition of the resulting hires. If your sourcing runs primarily through existing employees' networks, that is the thing to look at.
Job referrals and third-party sourcing
The prohibition names more than one kind of party. The EEOC states that it is illegal for an employer, employment agency, or union to take a person's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information into account when making decisions about job referrals.
Employers that route hiring through staffing firms or recruiting agencies should read that list carefully, because employment agencies are named in it directly.
Applying the job-related standard to screening
Once applications arrive, the same logic applies to how they are filtered.
The EEOC prohibits employers from basing hiring decisions on stereotypes and assumptions about a person's protected characteristics. It also sets conditions on testing.
If an employer requires applicants to take a test, the test must be necessary and related to the job, and it may not exclude people on the basis of a protected characteristic.
For applicants age 40 or older, a test that excludes them must be based on a reasonable factor other than age.
There is also an affirmative obligation at the application stage. If a job applicant with a disability needs an accommodation in order to apply, such as a sign language interpreter, the employer is required to provide it unless doing so would cause significant difficulty or expense.
That obligation attaches before anyone is hired. An application system that cannot handle an accommodation request is a compliance exposure as well as a usability problem.
What to check before a posting goes live
A short review pass catches most of it.
Read the posting for any term that describes a person instead of the work. The EEOC's two published examples are "recent college graduates" and "females."
Wording that follows the same pattern, naming a demographic where a capability belongs, deserves the same scrutiny. Replace each one with the requirement it was standing in for.
Separate required qualifications from preferred ones. A requirement that is not necessary for the job is harder to defend if it screens people out.
Check whether every listed requirement is job-related and necessary to the operation of the business. That is the standard the EEOC applies to neutral policies that have a disproportionately negative effect.
Look at your distribution as well as your wording. Channels that reach the same networks every time produce the same applicant pool every time.
Confirm that your application process can handle an accommodation request without escalation.
Building posting review into your hiring process
The through-line across every section above is the same. The EEOC's prohibitions attach at the point where you describe the role, before a single application arrives. Wording, distribution, screening criteria, and the ability to handle an accommodation request are all part of the same review.
That review works best as a standing step rather than a one-time cleanup. Requirements creep back into templates, roles get copied from older postings, and sourcing channels narrow without anyone deciding to narrow them.
A short check before each posting goes live is cheaper than reconstructing your reasoning later.
Where you publish is part of that process. A posting reaches the candidates the channel reaches, which is why distribution belongs in the same review as language.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is it illegal to write "recent college graduates" in a job ad?
The EEOC gives this exact phrase as an example of wording that may discourage people over 40 from applying and may violate the law.
The phrase does not reference age directly, which is the point. The standard covers language that discourages, and it is not limited to language that excludes.
Can a job posting say that a specific group is encouraged to apply?
The EEOC's rule is that a job advertisement may not show a preference for someone because of a protected characteristic. Any wording that names a group based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information should be reviewed against that standard before it publishes.
Do employee referral programs create legal risk?
They can. The EEOC states that recruiting in a discriminatory way is illegal, and gives the example of word-of-mouth recruitment through a workforce of one national origin producing new hires almost entirely of that national origin.
What the example turns on is the composition of the hires that result.
Do these rules apply before anyone is hired?
Yes. The EEOC's prohibitions cover job advertisements, recruitment, applications, and hiring, along with the obligation to accommodate an applicant with a disability who needs help to apply. The obligations attach to applicants as well as to employees.
Are hiring tests allowed?
Yes, with conditions. The EEOC states that a required test must be necessary and related to the job and may not exclude people on the basis of a protected characteristic. A test that excludes applicants age 40 or older must be based on a reasonable factor other than age.
Does the referral rule apply to staffing agencies?
The EEOC's guidance names employers, employment agencies, and unions together in its statement on job referrals. All three are covered by the prohibition on considering protected characteristics in referral decisions.
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Sources & References
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Prohibited employment policies/practices. https://www.eeoc.gov/prohibited-employment-policiespractices
