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While asking general questions about age or religion aren't clear-cut under discrimination laws, queries about a person's disability are not allowed.

Are you pregnant? What religion are you? How old are you?

There are certain questions most of us don’t expect hiring managers to ask during a job interview because we think they’re too personal or even illegal.

But while such inquiries aren’t always legal no-nos, they can be hazardous.

Cynthia M. applied for a job at Florida insurer, and believed she was more than qualified for the position. But during the interview she was asked about her religion and probed about her marital status.

“I was asked point-blank if I attended church and ‘which one?’ ” said Cynthia, who didn’t want her full name used because she feared it would hurt her continued job search. She was also asked if she had a family. When she told the recruiter she had a daughter, the interviewer asked, “Is that all?”

“That particular interview was very brief and there was zero response to my carefully thought-out letter I sent after the interview as a follow-up,” she explained. “I guess he didn't like that I was a single parent.”

A reader on our Facebook page, Linda Och, wrote recently that during a phone interview for a job she was asked her birth date and age. “I never heard from the employer again. I feel it was the cause of my not hearing about a second interview,” she maintained.

“Is this not discrimination?” she asked.

While you can’t refuse to hire someone based on a characteristic that’s protected under the nation’s labor laws, including things like religion or age, questioning a job applicant about such things by itself isn’t going to get government discrimination defenders banging down any company doors.

What happens as far as hiring decisions after the questions are asked is what ends up getting employers in legal hot water.

“Pre-employment inquires about a person's race, sex or pregnancy, national origin, religion or age are not technically illegal under the laws we enforce as long as they are asked of all people,” said Justine Lisser, a spokeswoman and senior attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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“Employment decisions made on those bases -- such as denying employment to all pregnant women, or everyone who isn't a Christian, are illegal, however,” she continued. “When investigating a charge of discrimination, the EEOC will look at these types of pre-employment inquiries as indications of discriminatory intent.”

Nigel Telman, an attorney with Proskauer, an employment law firm that represents employers, said questions related to protected categories such as age or religion may seem innocuous to some hiring managers but can end up causing problems down the line. “An applicant who didn’t get the job can allege they told the employer something about a protected characteristic,” he noted.

Indeed, if there turns out to be a pattern pointing to discrimination against a certain group or groups, such questions may become substantiation of illegal practices.

In the case of Texas Roadhouse, questions by hiring managers about age are part of anecdotal evidence in the age-discrimination case against the restaurant chain brought by the EEOC last year.

The EEOC case alleges that managers were instructed to hire younger job applicants, and that older unsuccessful applicants nationally were told: “There are younger people here who can grow with the company” and “You seem older to be applying for this job.”

Texas Roadhouse officials did not immediately return a telephone call requesting a comment.

While asking general questions about age or religion aren’t clear-cut under discrimination laws, queries about a person’s disability are not allowed.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are prohibited pre-employment inquiries about an applicant’s disability, according to the EEOC.  

The agency states on its “pre-employment inquires” web page that:

• Employers generally cannot ask disability-related questions or require medical examinations until after an applicant has been given a conditional job offer. 
• Employers are permitted to ask limited questions about reasonable accommodation if they reasonably believe that the applicant may need accommodation because of an obvious or voluntarily disclosed disability, or where the applicant has disclosed a need for accommodation.

In addition, it’s illegal to ask questions about genetic information or family medical history under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, the EEOC’s Lisser pointed out.

And, she added, “It is also illegal for an employer to advertise for specific characteristics such as sex, age or race.” 

Given that personal questions could lead to claims of bias, you’d think employers would have abandoned the practice already.

“Some managers need a reminder that these questions are hazardous to the company,” said Richard Howard, an employment attorney with Meltzer Lippe. “Hiring managers should absolutely steer clear of questions regarding age, race, religion, pregnancy, and marital status.”

Has a hiring manager ever asked you an inappropriate question related to age, race, religion, pregnancy, health, or marital status? Share your story below. 

A growing number of small business owners are taking a page from their bigger corporate counterparts and implementing wellness programs for their employees to curtail ever-escalating health care costs. Employers can’t just force everyone to eat tofu and do yoga, however.

That’s why Climax Portable Machine Tools based in Newberg, Ore., is taking its time rolling out a wellness program and using a carrot instead of a stick with its 160 employees. The program implemented in the last year is voluntary. Workers are offered incentives, including getting up to $40 back in their paychecks a month, for getting on the health bandwagon. Among the steps being offered are on-site medical screenings, health and nutritional seminars, daily walks and even a company basketball team.

Climax has seen its health insurance premiums rise as much as 30 percent annually, so a wellness program made sense, said Karen Kinslow, the company’s wellness coordinator. “We really wanted to look after our employees and it really helps the bottom line when you do these things,” she explained.

More small business owners are realizing the same thing. A recent MetLife survey found 29 percent of small businesses offered some sort of wellness options, compared to 22 percent last year, and 16 percent five years ago.

Such programs have been shown to pay off for employers. Research from the Partnership for Prevention found that for every $1 spent on worksite health promotion programs, a company can see an average of $3.50 in savings related to fewer sick days and health care costs.  And such programs can be a good thing for employees. An Israeli study showed that employees who engaged in some form of exercise had lower rates of depression and job burnout, according to an article in MyHealthNewsDaily.

But the strong-arm approach to getting workers healthier can run afoul of the nation’s labor laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. Implementing employee health programs come with many restrictions under several key laws – the ADA, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Under the ADA, employers are prohibited from requiring an employee to take a medical exam, and you can’t require an employee to participate in a wellness program to qualify for health insurance, said Chris Kuczynski, assistant legal counsel, ADA/GINA policy division for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

When it comes to GINA, he continued, “If you’re going to offer an incentive in connection with a health risk assessment or wellness program, you can’t condition that on whether a person gives you family history or genetic information.”

Employers can’t have blanket wellness policies, which is where companies get into the most trouble, Kuczynski stressed. If a worker is unable to engage in certain exercises because of an underlying medical condition that is beyond his control, such as a thyroid gland disorder or high blood pressure, employers can’t penalize the employee for not participating.

Climax has been cautious when implementing methods to encourage workers to participate.

Kinslow talks to workers individually and helps them come up with other options if they can’t do things like running a 5K. Employees can get points, which translate into dollars, if they attend nutrition or stress-reduction seminars on-site, or even if they take a healthy-eating cooking class. And, she added, some employees may not want their wellness tied directly to work, so they could get points for teaching a karate class to kids, for example.

When providing rewards there are limits, especially as they relate to health insurance premiums. Companies are increasingly offering employees breaks on their healthcare premiums as incentives to participate in wellness programs, but there are strict requirements under HIPAA on how that can be done. The total award must not exceed 20 percent of an employees total coverage cost. Under a provision in health care reform that number will go up to 30 percent in 2014.

As far as medical privacy restrictions, health screenings that are done by the employer must be strictly confidential. “They always have to be careful with where data goes and their access to that data,” said Joe Ellis, senior vice president at CBIZ Benefits & Insurance Services, an employee benefits consulting firm. “The employer would never see an individual’s data but they could see aggregate data.”

Another problem is potential injuries workers could sustain while exercising during work hours.

Late last year, Ged King, president of The Sales Factory, a marketing agency in Greensboro, N.C., bought four Trek commuter bicycles for employees to use on lunch runs, errands or leisurely rides.

The bikes are part of a wellness strategy King devised to help his staff of 27 get healthier.

His plan also includes rewarding workers prizes -- everything from $25 gift cards to iPods -- if they exercise more, including biking, running, or even gardening. “It makes for happier people who are more excited to come to work,” he said about the wellness program that launched last month. “You can’t be creative if you don’t feel good.”

To deal with the issue of injuries, employees at The Sales Factory were all asked to sign a “Bicycle Release Form” before King purchased the bikes. The release stated that workers were assuming “all personal liability in case of injury”.

Employees were also asked to promise to wear helmets, which he provided, when they take the bikes out. The goal of the wellness plan, King stressed, “is to make sure we’re healthier.”