Man buns and purple hair: Can employers regulate physical appearance?

Certain states such as California and Illinois have been or are in the process of enacting laws to protect employees’ hairstyles because of the fear that banning specific looks may have a disparate impact on certain protected classes of workers. Wisconsin currently has no such law. The city of Madison, however, has long had an ordinance prohibiting employment discrimination based on physical appearance, unless there’s a reasonable business purpose justifying the workplace policy.

Madison ordinance

Madison General Ordinance (MGO) Section 39.03(8) provides:

(8) Employment Practices. It shall be an unfair discrimination practice and unlawful and hereby prohibited: (a) For any person or employer individually or in concert with others to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to her/his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s protected class membership [emphasis added].

MGO section 39.03(2) defines physical appearance as “the outward appearance of any person, irrespective of sex, with regard to hairstyle, beards, manner of dress, weight, height, facial features, or other aspects of appearance. It shall not relate, however, to the requirement of cleanliness, uniforms, or prescribed attire, if and when such requirement is uniformly applied for admittance to a public accommodation or to employees in a business establishment for a reasonable business purpose.” In short, physical appearance is a protected class under the ordinance.