Human Resource Blog

NJ: Illegal to include Date of Birth in Compensation report?

	Compensation
Employee Payroll Action Form W-4 Employee Withholding Allowance Cert. Employee Payroll Status/Change Form Direct Deposit Form Total Compensation Summary

	HR Management
Confidential Employee Folder Confidential Employee Medical Folder Job File Worksheet Folder Daily EEO Applicant Flow Log Workplace Information Sheets Request to Inspect Personnel Files

We have recently implemented a program to manage Human Resources. I am trying to figure out if it is illegal to create a compensation report that includes Date of Birth. Does it violate any Age Discrimination laws?

This is a gray area. However, given the very stiff New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, many employers would err on the side of caution, and not include the employee\’s date of birth on a compensation report.

Both federal and New Jersey law prohibit discrimination based on age. The federal law specifically limits this to discrimination based on age if the employee is over the age of 40. Legally, an employer cannot consider the employee\’s age when making any job-related decisions.

A compensation report that includes the employee\’s date of birth could be used to discriminate against certain employees. For example, an employer could use it to deny raises to older employees or to systematically fire them. You would probably not do such a thing…but can you guarantee that no one in your organization would?

Even if there is no age discrimination at your company, the existance of such a report looks fishy. An employee could very well file a lawsuit, claiming that the employer created the report specifically to target older workers. Most HR pros would say that is not a risk worth taking.

It would be better to create a compensation report that listed employees by their hire date or length of tenure with the company, rather than their age.