Tip Tuesday! The pros and cons of refusing to hire smokers

By Tim Gould

Now that Obamacare has kicked in, more and more companies are refusing to hire people who smoke. But some legal dangers do remain.  

As we pointed out in a post in February 2013, there’s no federal law that protects smokers or entitles them to equal protections when it comes to hiring, promotions, etc. That’s because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission doesn’t recognize smokers as a protected class.

And Fisher & Phillips attorney Kytle Frye, writing on the Becker’s Hospital Review website, points out that the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act actually recognizes the increased healthcare costs associated with smoking employees by allowing insurers to raise smokers’ insurance premiums up to 50 percent over those paid by non-smokers.

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