Applicants are not legally required to share this type of information with the employer before being hired. The township may not discriminate against a job applicant—or employee—because of his or her race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Those are called “protected classes” in employment law—and in Michigan, this list further includes marital status, height and weight. This also means that a township may not base hiring decisions on stereotypes and assumptions about any of those protected classes. Employment decisions (from hire to promotion, discipline and termination) must be based on legitimate business reasons that are unrelated to those protected classes.