EEOC Sharpens Focus on National Origin Discrimination Against American Workers

EEOC Sharpens Focus on National Origin Discrimination Against American Workers

The EEOC has issued a new one-page technical assistance document — “Discrimination Against American Workers Is Against the Law” — and refreshed its national origin landing page. The signal is unmistakable: enforcement attention is shifting toward immigration-related employment practices, with an explicit emphasis on protecting U.S. workers.

The core rule under Title VII hasn’t changed. It still prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. National origin discrimination includes unfavorable (and favorable) treatment based on where someone is from, their ethnicity, accent, or perceived ethnic background — and it covers same-national-origin discrimination too.

What’s new is the framing. The EEOC is highlighting fact patterns that may go the other direction from what employers usually associate with national origin claims:
* Job ads suggesting a preference for a particular country or visa status (“H-1B preferred” / “H-1B only”).
* Terminating U.S. workers “on the bench” between assignments at a higher rate than visa guest workers.
* Using more burdensome application processes for U.S. workers than for H-1B holders (think PERM-adjacent practices).
* Paying visa guest workers less than similarly situated American workers.
* Allowing harassment based on national origin, accent, or ethnicity that creates a hostile work environment.

For employers this is a moment to audit. Look at your job postings, your hiring funnels, your bench/PIP practices, and your compensation analyses for visa vs. non-visa employees. The 2016 Enforcement Guidance is still in effect; this new document layers on top of it, signaling where investigations are likely to land.

A few practical moves:

1. Scrub job ads for visa-status language; let the immigration paperwork happen separately.

2. Make sure your reduction-in-force and bench-management decisions look at visa-holding and non-visa-holding employees on the same criteria.
3. Compare pay between similarly situated U.S. and visa workers, document the differences, and fix unexplained gaps.

This is one of those moments where the law didn’t change but the enforcement spotlight just moved. Don’t be the test case.

How is your team handling pay and bench equity between U.S. workers and visa-holding employees?