NMU's Compliance Database - Northern Michigan University

Michigan is one of the few states that protects workers from discrimination in employment based on weight. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.2202, says it is illegal for an employer to “fail or refuse to hire or recruit, discharge, or otherwise discriminate against an individual with respect to employment compensation because of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, or marital status.”

This prohibition has been upheld. In 2010, the Macomb County Circuit Court found a waitress at Hooters had presented a valid claim of weight discrimination under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), where she was told to lose weight or be fired (the waitress was 5’8” and weighed 132 pounds, a healthy weight). But, there is little published case law in Michigan in this area.

The legislator responsible for adding “weight” to the list of protected categories in the ELCRA back in 1976, did so, according to one source, because he was “flabbergasted” by the number of cases in which qualified women seeking office jobs were unfairly denied work because they were overweight.