14 interview questions that are actually illegal

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"Are you pregnant?"

Hiring managers use the job interview to learn as much about the candidate as possible. To do that, they ask lots of questions - including ones that seem harmless, but are completely illegal.

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According to a new CareerBuilder survey conducted by Harris Poll, a whopping 20% of 2,192 hiring and human resource managers in the US indicated they have asked a candidate an illegal question. What's worse, when the group of over 2,000 hiring managers was shown a list of illegal questions and asked whether they were legal, at least 33% said they weren't sure.

While laws regarding job interview questions vary by state - some specifically prohibit certain questions, while others merely prohibit discrimination based on their answers - it's important to know when you might be crossing the line.

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"State and federal laws make discrimination based on certain protected categories, such as national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, disabilities, arrest and conviction record, military discharge status, race, gender, or pregnancy status, illegal," Lori Adelson, Esq., a labor and employment attorney for employers and the founding member of Adelson Law in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tells Business Insider. "Any question that asks a candidate to reveal information about such topics without the question having a job related basis will violate the various state and federal discrimination laws."

However, she explains, "if the employer states questions so that they directly relate to specific occupational qualifications, then the questions may be legitimate. Clearly, the employer needs to be mindful of the intent behind the question."

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We compiled the following list of illegal interview questions, which are often mistaken as appropriate, from CareerBuilder, Adelson Law, a workplace law firm focusing on employment law solutions for business, and Joan K. Ustin & Associates, a consultant firm specializing in human resources and organization development:

Vivian Giang contributed to an earlier version of this article.