Our company wants to create different policies for different departments within the company, such as requiring professional business attire for our office employees but allowing warehouse employees to wear jeans. Can we treat departments differently?

Creating different policies for different job titles or departments can be an acceptable practice in some circumstances. While there is always a concern about discrimination in the workplace, discrimination occurs only when employees are treated differently on the basis of one or more protected classes (e.g. race, gender, or national origin), or when a policy that may seem neutral actually has an adverse impact on a protected class.

Establishing a different dress code for office versus warehouse workers is based on a legitimate business justification—maintaining a professional appearance in an environment where customers interact with employees, versus a less professional dress code where workers