Can California employers impose different dress and grooming requirements on male and female employees? The answer is, it depends.
Employers can have different standards if there is a clear, nondiscriminatory rationale for the difference and the standards don’t impose a greater burden on one sex than the other. Thus, for example, in the interest of maintaining a professional business image, you could permit women to wear their hair any length but require male employees to keep their hair short.
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But some dress standards are off limits. In particular, California prohibits employers from requiring women to wear skirts or dresses unless all employees have to wear uniforms and the skirt or dress is part of the women’s outfit. And, a state law that took effect in 2004 mandates that employees be permitted to appear or dress consistently with their gender identity. So if a male employee who identifies with being female chooses to wear women’s clothing, you must permit that. You can, however, impose the same grooming standards on this person that you do on other employees, such as requiring skirt and dress length to fall below the knee.
Additional Resources:
Sex Discrimination: Ninth Circuit Rules on Sex-Based Grooming Standards; What You Need to Know