What Employers Can’t Ask You In Job Interviews Hawaii

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Employment applications and interviews assist employers in choosing applicants who they think best fit their company’s needs and business objectives. It is entirely legal for an employer to eliminate anyone for almost any reason from consideration, so long as that reason is neither illegal nor violates a recognized and compelling governmental public policy. Examples include denying employment based on an applicants gender, religion, race, national origin and physical disability.

Under current employment law, a job application form cannot inquire into an applicant’s race, including the color of your skin, eyes, or hair. You cannot be asked about your national origin or heritage because that might be a form of national origin discrimination. That includes questions about what country you came from or "place of birth." You also can't be asked whether English is your first language. You can't be asked if you have a "green card." But your employer is required by federal immigration laws to ask you to show that you can work in the United States.

A potential employer may not ask your religion, if you have religious beliefs or what those beliefs are, or what religious days you observe, because that might constitute religious discrimination. He may, however, tell you what days you will be required to work. If you then tell him that your religion prevents you from working certain days, he must try to accommodate you.

When you are applying for a job, a potential employer cannot ask on the application form if you have a disability - though he is permitted to ask whether you can perform the essential functions of the job with or without a reasonable accommodation.

If your disability is obvious and you go for an interview, the interviewer may not ask you how bad your disability is - unless the question is directly related to your ability to perform a job. For example, if you are hearing impaired and you are applying for a job where you would seldom have to be able to hear well to do the job, your employer cannot ask you how bad your hearing loss is.

Finally, an employer cannot ask questions that do not seek information that is directly relevant to evaluating an applicant's qualifications for employment. It is therefore, in the employer's best interest to carefully review all procedures and questions used in the company’s screening of applicants for employment.