Employment Practices Liability is an area of United States law that deals with wrongful termination, sexual harassment, discrimination, invasion of privacy, false imprisonment, breach of contract, emotional distress, and wage and hour law violations.

Most commonly, employment practices liability deals with laws and protections brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) of 1990, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, ADEA (Age Discrimination in Employment Act) of 1967, and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) interprets and enforces these laws.

A growing product on the insurance markets is employment practices liability insurance (EPL), a type of  policy that business owners can buy to protect their organizations against employee suits for rights protected under acts above.^[3] More recently, with the expansion of privacy law(s), employee privacy concerns have come to the fore as private employee data is stored electronically. This is not always covered under an EPL policy, but the insurance industry has responded by offering cyber liability and network security policies.

Importantly, there are both federal and state statutes that govern an employer's liability to its employees. Laws also differ from state to state; e.g., California, is often considered a pro-employee state when it comes to employers' liability.

• Sexual harassment
• Discrimination
• Wrongful termination
• Breach of employment contract
• Negligent evaluation
• Failure to employ or promote
• Wrongful discipline
• Deprivation of career opportunity
• Wrongful infliction of emotional distress
• Mismanagement of employee benefit plans

The cost of EPLI coverage depends on your type of business, the number of employees you have and various risk factors such as whether your company has been sued over employment practices in the past. The policies will reimburse your company against the costs of defending a lawsuit in court and for judgments and settlements. The policy covers legal costs, whether your company wins or loses the suit. Policies also typically do not pay for punitive damages or civil or criminal fines. Liabilities covered by other insurace policies such as workers compensation are excluded from EPLI policies.