Fight workplace discrimination with a real plan.

No — and the assessment tells you when you need one. This does the critical early work most people skip: documenting incidents properly, creating a formal paper trail, and understanding which laws apply. That preparation makes a lawyer more effective and cheaper. Many employment attorneys offer free initial consultations and work on contingency, and the toolkit prepares what they'll ask for.

That's the coverage check: four questions on employer size, whether the basis is a federally protected characteristic, whether you're an employee or a contractor, and whether the most recent incident is inside the filing window. Title VII and the ADA generally apply at 15 or more employees and the ADEA at 20 — thresholds most people have never heard of. If federal coverage looks uncertain, it points you to your state agency, which often covers smaller employers and more categories.

The major federal categories: race, colour, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment), religion, age from 40, disability, and genetic information. It also flags state-specific protections, which in many states extend to categories like sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.

Retaliating against someone for reporting discrimination is itself unlawful, and it's often more straightforward to demonstrate than the underlying discrimination because the timing does much of the work. The toolkit covers what counts as retaliation — schedule changes, demotion, sudden performance criticism — what to document from the day you file, and how to report it as a separate violation.

Generally 180 days from the discriminatory act, extended to 300 where a state or local fair employment agency exists, which is most states. The assessment works out which applies to you and gives you the date — and tells you to confirm it with the EEOC directly, because missing it can bar the claim no matter how strong it is. Filing internally with HR does not pause that clock.

Legally, no — you can go straight to the EEOC. But filing with HR first creates a record that your employer was on notice and had the chance to act, which matters later. The toolkit generates the HR complaint first, then guides you to the EEOC if it isn't resolved — and tells you when to skip HR entirely, such as when HR is where the problem starts.