What is the California Fair Employment Housing Act (FEHA)?

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is the primary law that provides employees with protection from discrimination, retaliation, and harassment in employment. All of FEHA's anti-discrimination provisions apply to employers with five or more full-time or part-time employees. Additionally, FEHA's anti-harassment provisions apply to all employers with one or more employees.

Many of the same nondiscrimination and harassment principles under federal law also apply under FEHA. FEHA provides protection from discrimination, retaliation, and harassment in all terms and conditions of employment based on the following protected categories:

• Race (including traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and protective hairstyles)
• Color
• Religion (including religious dress and grooming practices)
• Sex/gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions)
• Reproductive health decision-making
• Gender identity, gender expression
• Sexual orientation
• Marital status
• Medical condition (including genetic characteristics, cancer, or a record or history of cancer)
• Military or veteran status
• National origin (including language use and possession of a driver's license issued to persons unable to prove their presence in the United States is authorized under federal law)
• Ancestry
• Disability (mental and physical, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, and genetic characteristics)
• Genetic information
• Request for family care leave
• Request for leave for an employee's own serious health condition
• Request for Pregnancy Disability Leave
• Retaliation for reporting patient abuse in tax-supported institutions
• Age (over 40)
• Criminal background (Fair Chance Act)

FEHA also prohibits retaliation against any person for making a complaint under FEHA, for assisting another in making such a complaint, or for opposing any action in the workplace that would constitute a violation of FEHA.