Is It Legal to Require Fluency in Spanish to Get a Job in the USA?

Discrimination

Federal law bars an employer from discriminating against an employee or potential employee on the basis of age, gender, race, national origin, religion and marital and family status. National origin includes your ancestry, birthplace and culture. Discriminating against you because of the ethnicity of your last name also violates federal law. Since the language you speak is directly tied to your national origin, requiring you to speak anything else also violates federal law.

Fluency Requirements

The EEOC will allow an employer to require fluency in a specific language when it is required for the “effective performance of the position for which it is imposed.” For example, a company that has many customers who only speak Spanish can legally require the employees who interact with these customers to speak Spanish. However, the EEOC cautions against uniformly applying this rule, because the degree of fluency will vary from job to job, even within the same company. Using the example of a company who has customers who speak Spanish, the company cannot legally require employees who do not interact with Spanish-speaking customers to be fluent in Spanish.

Enforcement

You can file a claim with the EEOC if your employer bases employment on whether you speak a certain language. The EEOC will then investigate and may even file a lawsuit against your employer. For example, in 2009, it sued Michoacan Seafood Group, LLC for firing two otherwise qualified employees who did not speak Spanish. It sought to permanently stop the company from discriminating against its employees. It also sought back wages, compensatory and punitive damages and other relief for the employees who were fired and a number of other former employees who could not speak Spanish.

Application

During its investigation, the EEOC will consider an employer’s reasons for requiring fluency in a language such as Spanish. For example, the EEOC believes that requiring employees to speak only one language while they are at work, especially if that language is not their primary language, is discriminatory, regardless of the business reason. The EEOC may let an employer require that employees speak in a certain language, such as Spanish, at certain times during the work day, but only when justified by business necessity.

Notification

Your employer must notify you of a fluency requirement, especially when the language is not your primary language. Firing or otherwise disciplining you for not being fluent, or not offering you a job because you aren't fluent, violates federal law. An employer can face legal consequences for doing so.