Many veterans know it’s illegal in the United States for them to be denied employment due to their veteran status, or to be harassed, demoted, terminated, paid less or treated less favorably because of said status.
Yet some veterans may not be aware of deeper nuances about what this protection means.
According to the Department of Labor, a protected veteran falls under the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA). But even if you weren't old enough to serve in 1974 or aren't a Vietnam veteran, you might still be protected.
First, a bit of history. Many Vietnam veterans didn’t exactly receive a warm welcome home. That’s why so many experienced discrimination in employment.
Fifty years later, society has changed, but these days, veterans still experience discrimination. This includes:
- Disabled veterans
- Recently separated veterans
- Veteran who received service medals
- Veterans who served during wartime or received a campaign medal
Under VEVRAA, the criteria for protected status includes Gulf War-era veterans, an era that started on August 2, 1990, and does not yet have a fixed end date.
VEVRAA was designed to help these protected vets gain employment and keep their jobs without facing discrimination. It even allowed for businesses to make "reasonable accommodations" to help disabled veterans apply for jobs.
How Protected Veteran Status Works
Besides the protections mentioned above, any employee who’s a disabled veteran can request reasonable accommodation to allow you to do your job "unless doing so would cause the employer significant difficulty or expense."
Reasonable accommodations include providing written materials in Braille for the blind, modifying equipment for disabled use or having a sign language interpreter on hand for important communications. Those are just a few examples, not a complete list.
What Employers Must Obey Protected Veteran Status Rules?
All employers must follow the laws of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), which mandates that all activated reservists cannot be terminated from employment as a result of being activated for service.
But not all employers fall under VEVRAA.
Employers that work with the federal government or that have a certain dollar amount in federal contracts have to comply with the legislation. So do their subcontractors.
Does self-identifying as a disabled veteran hurt your chances of getting the job? Probably not. Under VEVRAA, employers must not only ask veterans to self-identify, but they must also take affirmative action to recruit and hire protected veterans.
When VEVRAA was expanded in 2014, the unemployment rate for veterans was an estimated 2 percentage points higher than for nonveterans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
About six years later, the veteran unemployment rate was just 2.9%, lower than the overall rate of 3.5%. The latest figures from 2024 showed this holding steady: a 3% veteran jobless rate vs. 3.9% overall, per the BLS.
Not a bad outcome.
Employers must make their workplaces open to Department of Labor inspectors to ensure compliance with VEVRAA. If a veteran feels they have been discriminated against despite VEVRAA, they can file a claim with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Employers are also blocked from taking retaliatory action against a protected veteran filing a complaint with the OFCCP.
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