No earrings for men - discrimination?

[Introfiant]

Commonwealth of Virginia

I recently got a job as a server at one of those big chain restaurants. Their policy is that men may not wear earrings of any kind, but women may wear them. I was told by the manager to remove my earring. Is this discrimination? I can understand a business having a dress code, but not one that favors one sex over the other. What are my possible remedies?

Thanks!

 

[HomeGuru]

Commonwealth of Virginia

I recently got a job as a server at one of those big chain restaurants. Their policy is that men may not wear earrings of any kind, but women may wear them. I was told by the manager to remove my earring. Is this discrimination? I can understand a business having a dress code, but not one that favors one sex over the other. What are my possible remedies?

Thanks!

**A: why do you need to wear the earings? Is there some cultural or religious reasons?

 

[cbg]

It has been determined by a number of different courts that a different dress code for men vs. women is NOT illegal discrimination. An employer is entitled to enforce whatever dress code it takes to set the standard he feels his business needs. If that means no earrings on men, that's legal.

What about skirts? Are you going to tell me that skirts are discriminatory? Only women wear them, right?

If the earring has religious significance for you or is mandated by your cultural tradition, he MAY have to make an exception. But don't think you can just declare it to be religious or cultural and he has to immediately let you wear it; he will be entitled to know what religous or cultural tradition it is and if it turns out that you've only just picked it up in order to get to wear earrings on the job, you lose that bet.

 

[Beth3]

No, it's not discrimination. If the female servers are required to wear a blouse, black skirt and stockings as their "uniform" as is common in many restaurants, are you saying you want to wear that too? An employer using "norms of attire" as their dress code for the different genders is not discriminatory.