EEOC deflection

When an interviewer asks how many kids you have, whether you plan to get pregnant, where you were born, or how old you are, the instinct is to freeze or answer anyway. Neither is required. The EEOC deflection reframes the question as the lawful concern underneath it and answers that instead — which satisfies the interviewer's actual need, exits the illegal question, and costs you nothing.

When to use EEOC deflection

Use when a question touches a protected class under federal or state law: age, family status, marital status, pregnancy, religion, citizenship, national origin, disability, salary history (in ban states), or genetic information.

• "Are you planning to have kids?"
• "What year did you graduate?" (age proxy)
• "Are you a U.S. citizen?"
• "Do you have any medical conditions we should know about?"
• "What's your current salary?" (in a salary-history ban state)

How to use it

1. Identify the legitimate concern underneath the question. Availability concerns: "I can absolutely commit to the schedule this role requires." Citizenship: "I'm authorized to work in the U.S." A medical question about a physical role: "I can perform all the functions in the job description."
2. Answer the lawful concern directly, without naming the question as illegal. Most interviewers do not realize they asked something unlawful, and pointing it out mid-interview rarely helps you.
3. If the question is clearly intentional and repeated, bridge: "I want to make sure I'm answering what matters for the role — [rephrase to the lawful concern]."
4. After the interview: note the question, the context, and the interviewer's name in case you need it later.

Example

Common pitfalls

• Answering directly. You are not required to, and answering legitimizes the question. Answer the concern, not the question.
• Making it adversarial. "That's an illegal question" is accurate but often counterproductive. The deflection moves you forward without a confrontation.
• Forgetting about state law. State protections are often broader than federal — salary history bans, criminal record restrictions, additional protected classes. Know the rules for the state you're interviewing in.

Where it comes from

Title VII, ADEA, ADA, PDA, GINA, USERRA · state ban-the-box and salary-history laws

In your next meeting

Kennan watches for the conversational pattern this framework addresses and surfaces a first-person line you can read off your HUD, in the same shape as the example above. Frameworks are receipts; the user-facing output is a sentence, not a citation.