Pennsylvania CROWN Act: Who Must Comply and How to File

Pennsylvania’s CROWN Act took effect on November 25, 2025, when Governor Shapiro signed House Bill 439 into law. It amends the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to define “race” as including hair texture and protective hairstyles, which makes it illegal for employers, schools, landlords, and businesses open to the public to penalize you for wearing your natural hair. If that happens, you have 180 days to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.¹

What Hair and Hairstyles Are Protected

Before the amendment, the PHRA prohibited race discrimination but didn’t say whether that covered hairstyles tied to racial identity. HB 439 closed the gap by adding two definitions to Section 4.

Section 4(bb) says the term “race” includes traits historically associated with an individual’s race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles. Section 4(cc) defines “protective hairstyle” to include locs, braids, twists, coils, Bantu knots, afros, and extensions. The list uses “includes, but is not limited to,” so a hairstyle not named can still qualify if it serves a protective purpose for natural hair.²

The effect is simple. Any action that would be illegal if motivated by a person’s skin color is equally illegal if motivated by their hair. An employer refusing to hire someone because of their locs is committing the same violation as one refusing to hire based on race.

Who Has to Follow It

Because the CROWN Act works by amending the PHRA’s definition of race, its protections reach everywhere the PHRA already applied.

Employers

Any employer with four or more employees in Pennsylvania has to comply, including state and local government agencies, school districts, and religious or charitable organizations when the discrimination involves race.² The protection covers hiring, firing, promotions, pay, and every other term of employment. Written grooming standards that single out natural hair textures or protective styles are unlawful on their face.

Schools

The PHRA defines “public accommodation” to include kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, high schools, academies, colleges, universities, and all educational institutions under Commonwealth supervision.² A student cannot be disciplined, sent home, or barred from extracurriculars because of their natural hair or a protective style.

Landlords and Housing Providers

Landlords, property managers, and real estate agents cannot deny housing, impose different lease terms, or harass a tenant or applicant based on hair texture or protective hairstyles. The same rules that already prohibited race-based discrimination in sales, rentals, and financing now cover hair-based distinctions.

Businesses Open to the Public

Restaurants, hotels, retail stores, recreation centers, and other public accommodations cannot deny service or enforce dress codes that target protected hairstyles.²

When a Grooming Rule Can Still Be Enforced

The law doesn’t wipe out every workplace grooming policy. An employer can enforce a rule that affects a protected hairstyle, but only by proving all four of the following:

Without the rule, the health or safety of an employee or someone materially connected to the work could be impaired.
The rule was adopted for reasons unrelated to race or racial traits.
The rule is narrowly targeted to the position and activity, not applied as a blanket policy across all roles.
The rule applies equally to every employee in the same position, regardless of hair texture or style.

All four have to be satisfied, and the employer carries the burden of proof.² A restaurant requiring all kitchen staff to wear hair restraints that fully contain hair is likely defensible because the rule applies the same way to everyone in that position. A corporate office banning locs because a manager considers them untidy would fail every prong.

Employers can also enforce policies aimed at preventing a hostile work environment, provided the policy was adopted for nondiscriminatory reasons and applied equally.²

Filing a Complaint With the PHRC

You have 180 days from the date of the discriminatory act to file with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Miss that window and the PHRC lacks jurisdiction to investigate, no matter how strong your evidence is.

What to Have Ready

The intake questionnaires ask for your contact information and the exact legal name and physical address of the person or entity you’re filing against, whether that’s a corporation, school district, or individual landlord.³ The PHRC uses separate complaint packages for employment, education, housing, and public accommodation cases, so use the one that matches your situation.⁴

Write out what happened with specific dates, names, and the exact policy or statement used to justify the adverse action. Copies of employee handbooks, school dress codes, written warnings referencing grooming standards, emails, and internal memos strengthen your case. If witnesses saw the conduct, have their names and contact details ready. Documentation of financial harm, like lost wages from a suspension or termination, will matter when the commission assesses remedies.

How to Submit

You have three options. The PHRC accepts walk-ins at its Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh regional offices, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with each office handling specific counties in its region.¹⁵ You can also mail your forms and evidence to the appropriate regional office or use the commission’s online contact portal.

What Happens After You File

The commission assigns your complaint a docket number and serves it on the respondent within 30 days. The respondent then has 60 days to file a written answer, and the PHRC gives you a copy.¹

Early on, the PHRC may schedule a fact-finding conference to see whether the case can be resolved without a full investigation. This step isn’t guaranteed. If the case moves forward, an investigator interviews both sides, speaks with witnesses, and reviews records. The investigation ends with either a no-probable-cause dismissal or a probable-cause finding.

A probable-cause finding triggers conciliation, where the PHRC tries to negotiate a settlement that stops the practice and provides compensation. If conciliation fails, the commission can hold a public hearing where testimony is taken under oath. A PHRC attorney represents your complaint, and you can bring your own attorney if you want.

You also have a courtroom alternative. Within one year of filing your PHRC complaint, you can bring a private lawsuit in a Court of Common Pleas if the complaint hasn’t been resolved or if the PHRC dismisses it.¹

What You Can Recover

Remedies are meant to put you back where you would have been without the discrimination. For employment cases, the commission can order hiring, reinstatement, or promotion with or without back pay, reimbursement of travel expenses related to the complaint, compensation for lost work, and any other verifiable out-of-pocket expenses caused by the unlawful practice.²

Housing cases go further. The commission can award actual damages including compensation for humiliation and embarrassment, plus civil penalties against the respondent: up to $10,000 for a first violation, up to $25,000 if there was one prior violation in the preceding five years, and up to $50,000 for more than one prior violation in the preceding seven years.²

If your case reaches court instead of a PHRC hearing, the court can issue injunctions, order reinstatement or hiring with back pay, and grant any other legal or equitable relief it deems appropriate.²

Protection Against Retaliation

Filing a complaint or cooperating with someone else’s complaint is itself protected activity under the PHRA. Your employer, school, or landlord cannot fire you, discipline you, evict you, or take any other adverse action because you reported hair-based discrimination or participated in the investigation. If they do, that retaliation is a separate violation, and you can file an additional complaint about it.

Federal Protections and Dual Filing

Federal law also reaches this space. The EEOC has taken the position that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating based on hair texture as a characteristic of race, and that grooming standards rooted in racial prejudice are unlawful.⁶ Workplace hair discrimination in Pennsylvania may violate both state and federal law at once.

When you file with the PHRC, you can ask that your complaint be cross-filed with the EEOC through worksharing agreements between the two agencies. Dual filing protects your rights under both laws without separate paperwork.⁷ The EEOC’s charge filing deadline is 300 days in states like Pennsylvania that have a state agency, which gives you more time on the federal side than the PHRC’s 180-day window. Don’t rely on the longer federal clock if a state remedy is what you want; the PHRC deadline is still 180 days.

1
Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Filing a Complaint
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Human Relations Act
3
Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Employment Intake Questionnaire
4
Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Attorney Resources
5
Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Contact the PHRC
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. American Screening to Pay $50,000 to Settle EEOC Race Discrimination Lawsuit
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination