It can be difficult for an employee to prove unlawful retaliation by an employer. However, one factor that is important is the closeness in time (in legal terms called temporal proximity ) between the employee’s complaint of discrimination and the adverse employment action. For example, let’s say an employee complains about sexual harassment and then the employer terminates her only one month later. That closeness in time may be enough to prove unlawful retaliation. It certainly seems to create an inference of unlawful retaliation. On the other hand, if there is a time gap between the protected conduct (complaining about discrimination) and the adverse employment action, then the employee must come up with some other type of evidence of retaliation.

• If an employee files both a sex or race discrimination claim and a retaliation claim, can the retaliation claim survive even if the underlying sex or race claim is dismissed?
• Does Title VI I’s retaliation clause protect an employee who participates not in a court proceeding or EEOC investigation but in an employer’s internal investigation of sexual harassment?
• What does Title VII say about retaliation?
• What is an example of a discrimination case involving religion in which it was ruled that the employer did not accommodate the employee adequately?
• If the employee establishes a prima facie claim, what must the employer do?
• How does an employee prove a claim of religious discrimination?
• Title VII also prohibits religious discrimination by covered employers. What is the law’s definition of religion?
• Does Title VII prohibit discrimination against transsexuals?
• Does Title VII protect employees who are harassed by members of the same sex?
• Can employers assert any defense to supervisory harassment?
• If a supervisor commented on an employee’s physical anatomy a few times and made several sexual jokes in her presence, is that sexual harassment?
• Does Title VII apply to harassing behavior on the part of employers?
• If an employer does present a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the discharge then what must the employee do to prove his or her case?
• If an employee presents a prima facie (or basic) case of discrimination, what must the employer show?
• Would a negative performance evaluation constitute an adverse employment action?
• What is an adverse employment action?
• How should and employer determine if an employee is qualified?
• What is a protected class?
• What happened to Percy Green after McDonnell Douglas v. Green?
• What was the McDonnell Douglas case about?