What Are South Carolina Discrimination Laws?

South Carolina discrimination laws are three state statutes that prohibit bias in employment, housing, and public accommodations, each enforced primarily by the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission (SCHAC). The agency, created by the General Assembly in 1972, investigates complaints and tries to resolve disputes involving protected characteristics like race, sex, age, disability, and national origin.¹ The three laws overlap with federal civil rights law in places, but each has its own list of protected classes, its own deadlines, and its own limits on what you can recover.

Employment Discrimination

The South Carolina Human Affairs Law, at Title 1, Chapter 13 of the state code, covers employers with 15 or more employees for at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or prior year. An employer cannot base hiring, firing, pay, promotions, job assignments, or other employment decisions on a worker’s race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, or disability. The age protection applies only to workers 40 or older.²

The same law bars employment agencies from refusing to refer applicants on protected grounds and prohibits labor organizations from excluding or expelling members on those grounds. Employers also cannot segregate or classify workers in ways that would limit their job opportunities based on a protected trait.²

One gap matters: South Carolina does not include sexual orientation or gender identity as protected classes under state law. Workers in those categories may have recourse under federal Title VII as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, but no separate state statute fills that role.

Pregnancy and Lactation

South Carolina’s 2018 Pregnancy Accommodations Act brought pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, including lactation, explicitly within “sex” under the Human Affairs Law. Employers must provide reasonable accommodations for medical needs arising from pregnancy unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the business.³

Accommodations the law specifically contemplates include more frequent breaks, a private space other than a bathroom stall for expressing milk, modified food or drink policies, seating for jobs that normally require standing, help with manual labor or lifting limits, temporary transfer to a less physically demanding role, and modified schedules.³ An employer cannot force an employee to accept an accommodation she did not request, cannot force her to take leave when another accommodation would work, and cannot retaliate against anyone who requests or uses a pregnancy-related accommodation.²

What You Can Recover

When a state agency or department is the employer, an administrative panel can order the discriminatory practice stopped and require hiring, reinstatement, promotion, or back pay. For private employers, a circuit court can issue the same types of relief. Back pay cannot reach further than two years before the date the charge was filed with SCHAC, and any unemployment benefits or interim earnings the worker received during that period reduce the back pay owed.²

The state statute does not explicitly authorize compensatory damages or attorney fee awards for employment discrimination. The federal route through the EEOC and Title VII can be more attractive for workers seeking those forms of relief, because federal law allows compensatory and punitive damages in intentional discrimination cases.

Housing Discrimination

The South Carolina Fair Housing Law, at Title 31, Chapter 21, prohibits discrimination in selling, renting, and financing residential property. Protected classes for housing are broader than for employment: race, color, religion, sex, handicap (disability), familial status, and national origin. Familial status protects families with children under 18, people who are pregnant, and anyone in the process of securing legal custody of a minor.⁴

A landlord or seller cannot refuse to negotiate, misrepresent that a unit is unavailable, or steer buyers and renters toward particular neighborhoods based on a protected characteristic. Advertisements cannot indicate a preference or limitation tied to a protected class. Lenders and other entities involved in residential real estate transactions cannot impose different terms or conditions based on a borrower’s demographic profile.⁴

Disability and Assistance Animals

Landlords must allow tenants with disabilities to make reasonable modifications at the tenant’s own expense. For rentals, the landlord can condition approval on the tenant agreeing to restore the interior at move-out, minus normal wear and tear. Landlords must also make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, and services when necessary to give a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling.⁴

For assistance animals that are not service animals, a landlord may ask whether the requester has a disability that substantially limits a major life activity and whether the animal provides disability-related assistance or emotional support. The landlord may request documentation verifying those two points, but nothing more.⁴

Housing Remedies and Deadline

If an administrative panel finds a housing violation, it can order the practice stopped, award actual damages, assess civil penalties, and award reasonable attorney fees. The state statute caps civil penalties at the amounts set under Section 3612 of the federal Fair Housing Act, which are periodically adjusted for inflation.⁴ A civil action for fair housing discrimination must be filed within one year of the alleged violation.

Public Accommodations

South Carolina’s public accommodations law protects against discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin at businesses that serve the general public.⁵ Covered establishments include hotels, restaurants, retail and wholesale stores, hospitals and clinics, theaters, sports arenas, golf courses, and other places of entertainment or recreation.⁶

Two limits make the state law narrower than its federal counterpart. Sex, disability, and age are not covered at the state level for public accommodations, though the Americans with Disabilities Act separately requires accessibility at private businesses regardless of state law. And the state law applies only to establishments whose operation is “supported by state action,” defined as any business that holds or is required to hold a license or permit from the state or a local government.⁶ In practice most commercial businesses qualify, but private clubs and establishments not open to the general public are exempt.

Retaliation

Filing a discrimination complaint or participating in an investigation is protected activity under both state and federal law. An employer cannot punish you for opposing what you reasonably believe to be discrimination, filing a charge, cooperating with an investigation, or serving as a witness. South Carolina’s employment discrimination statute explicitly references retaliation as a basis for relief.²

Retaliation goes well beyond firing. Under federal standards, any employer action that would discourage a reasonable worker from making or supporting a complaint counts. That includes cutting hours, reassigning someone to undesirable duties, issuing write-ups based on false information, denying benefits, changing schedules, or creating a hostile atmosphere through harassment.⁷ Many retaliation claims fall apart not because the retaliation didn’t happen but because the worker didn’t document the timeline connecting the protected activity to the adverse action. Keep records of every interaction that feels retaliatory, with dates.

Deadlines You Cannot Miss

Under South Carolina law alone, you have 180 calendar days from the discriminatory act to file an employment charge.⁸ Because SCHAC is a Fair Employment Practices Agency with a worksharing agreement with the EEOC, a charge filed with either agency is automatically dual-filed with the other.⁹ And because South Carolina has a state agency enforcing laws against the same types of discrimination the EEOC covers, the federal deadline extends to 300 days.¹⁰ The extra time is a safety net, not a reason to wait. Filing early preserves options and keeps evidence fresh.

For housing, remember the one-year deadline for a civil action.

How to File With SCHAC

Before contacting SCHAC, gather the legal name and physical address of the employer or entity you’re filing against, dates and descriptions of each incident, and the names of anyone who witnessed what happened. These details form the core of your charge, and delays often come from incomplete information at intake.

SCHAC uses separate intake questionnaires for employment and non-employment matters. For employment claims, you can complete the form online or download a printable version to submit to the agency.¹¹ For housing and public accommodation complaints, a separate non-employment questionnaire is available online or through an intake investigator.¹² The questionnaire asks you to identify which protected class was targeted, describe the specific harm, and explain why you believe the action was discriminatory.

What Happens After You File

Once SCHAC accepts your charge, an investigator is assigned to gather evidence from both sides. The respondent is notified and given a chance to respond. SCHAC may offer mediation as a faster alternative to a full investigation.

If the complaint is not settled, withdrawn, or dismissed, the Commission determines whether reasonable cause exists to believe the law was violated. Both parties receive notice of that determination. For employment claims, if the investigator recommends dismissal, the Commissioner reviews the file and issues a final order, and a party unhappy with the decision can request reconsideration within 10 days.²

Going to Court

If SCHAC dismisses your employment charge, or if 180 days pass without the Commission filing its own action or reaching a conciliation agreement, you can file a lawsuit in circuit court. You must file within one year from the date of the alleged violation or within 120 days of the dismissal, whichever comes first.² Miss either deadline and the state-level claim is gone.

A separate federal path exists through the EEOC. If a charge is pending there, you can request a Notice of Right to Sue, and once you receive it you have 90 days to file a federal lawsuit.¹³ You cannot pursue the same charge through both a Commission action and your own lawsuit at the same time. Whoever files first closes the other path, and the same is true for overlapping state and federal lawsuits based on the same facts.²

Taxes on a Settlement or Judgment

If you resolve a discrimination claim, how the money is taxed depends on what it compensates. Damages for physical injuries or physical sickness are generally excluded from gross income, but most employment discrimination awards do not fall into that category.

Back pay is taxable as ordinary income, and the IRS treats it as wages subject to withholding. Damages for emotional distress, humiliation, and similar non-physical harm are also taxable unless they reimburse actual medical expenses you have not previously deducted. The IRS has specifically ruled that back pay and emotional distress damages in Title VII employment discrimination cases are not excludable from gross income.¹⁴ A significant settlement is worth discussing with a tax professional before the money arrives.

1
South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. South Carolina Human Affairs Commission
2
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 1 Chapter 13 – State Human Affairs Commission
3
South Carolina Legislature. 2017-2018 Bill 3865 – SC Pregnancy Accommodations Act
4
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 31 Chapter 21 – Fair Housing Law
5
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 45-9-10 – All Persons Entitled to Equal Enjoyment of and Privileges to Public Accommodations
6
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 45 Chapter 9 – Equal Enjoyment and Privileges to Public Accommodations
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Retaliation for Protected EEO Activity Is Unlawful
8
South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. Timelines
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fair Employment Practices Agencies (FEPAs) and Dual Filing
10
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination
11
South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. How to File Employment Complaints
12
South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. How to File a 90(e) Complaint
13
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
14
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments