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On November 19th, 2025, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released new and updated educational materials on national origin discrimination. Notably, the recent announcement follows earlier claims by the agency that it would advance robust enforcement and awareness of national origin discrimination. Additionally, the EEOC wants to combat anti-American bias. Aside from national origin, employers must also not discriminate against other federally protected classes. Such classes include race, sex, age, disability, and pregnancy status. In June 2025, the agency ordered a company to pay $250,000 to settle a sex, race, and national origin harassment and discrimination lawsuit.
Overview of the National Origin Guidance Updates
Announced as part of its November 19 updates, the EEOC issued a new one-page technical assistance document. Markedly, according to the agency, “Discrimination Against American Workers Is Against The Law” was created to help workers understand their rights. Specifically, the guidance, available both digitally and in PDF format, covers the following topics:
- What Can Anti-American National Origin Discrimination Look Like?
- Common Business Reasons Do Not Justify National Origin Discrimination
The one-page document also states that before plaintiffs can sue in federal court on grounds of harassment and discrimination, they first must file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. Consequently, the EEOC will then investigate the charges and file a lawsuit against employers and employees, if warranted.
The EEOC also updated its national origin discrimination landing page. This page on the agency’s website gathers information and resources on national origin discrimination. In general, the agency added information for both workers and employers on what unlawful national origin discrimination can look like in the workplace and how individuals can act if they believe their rights have been violated. This is the same information included on their one-page guidance.
Significantly, the information on both the one-page document and webpage mainly only points out anti-American national origin discrimination. However, it is important to make clear that no form of national origin discrimination is legal under federal law. Many states, cities, and municipalities also prohibit national origin discrimination regardless of whether the individual is an “American.” The federal law that prohibits national origin discrimination (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) has not been changed or repealed.
Definition of “National Origin Discrimination”
The following is the current definition of “national origin discrimination” included on the EEOC’s website.
“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees or applicants from discrimination based on his or her national origin, including Americans.
National origin discrimination involves treating workers (applicants or employees) unfavorably or favorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world, because of ethnicity or accent, or because they appear to be of a certain ethnic background (even if they are not).
National origin discrimination can include preferring foreign workers, including workers with a particular visa status, over American workers.
National origin discrimination also can involve treating people unfavorably because they are married to (or associated with) a person of a certain national origin.
Discrimination can occur when the victim and the person who inflicted the discrimination are of the same national origin.”
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
In detail, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information. The law makes it clear that it is unlawful for an employer to:
- fail or refuse to hire an applicant,
- discharge any employee, or
- otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to their compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
In addition, the law requires employers to reasonably try to prevent and correct the behavior. Finally, Title VII protects employees who object to discrimination from retaliation or any adverse employment action against an employee exercising their rights.
Employer Takeaways
In conclusion, as touched on earlier, the new resources provided by the EEOC are based on Title VII. The information was also developed in accordance with existing EEOC policy guidance and technical assistance documents. Finally, previous and current Supreme Court rulings were considered when creating the guidance. According to the EEOC, the agency received 88,531 discrimination charges in Fiscal Year 2024. Of those total charges, nearly 10% involved national origin discrimination.
State, federal, and local laws prohibit harassment and discrimination of employees, job applicants, and visitors based on sex, gender, age, race, religion, national origin, pregnancy, or disability. Various court decisions and agency guidance have clarified that employers must take reasonable steps to prevent harassment and discrimination. Failure to take reasonable prevention measures can result in a finding of employer liability during a harassment or discrimination lawsuit.
To assist employers in training workers on workplace harassment and discrimination, WorkWise Compliance created the Harassment & Discrimination Prevention Training eLearning Module for Employees. In addition to explaining harassment and discrimination, the training module describes how to prevent such actions and outlines ways to report complaints. For employers in California and New York, the following harassment and discrimination prevention trainings need to be utilized in addition to regular harassment training where appropriate:
