Discrimination and employment are two areas that have received a massive amount of legal scrutiny from the federal government in the past half century. The protections of workers from discrimination in the workplace continually expand to protect further potential reasons for discrimination in the workplace. For starters, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the groundbreaking piece of legislation that protected the rights of workers to employment free of discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or gender. In addition, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 secured the rights of women to receive equal pay to their male counterparts. Continuing along, numerous amendments were added to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other legislation was passed to protect other marginalized and discriminated groups including older workers, disabled workers, and workers with different sexual orientations, gender identity, HIV/AIDS status, and virtually any other circumstance. In most instances, all employees are covered by the protections prohibiting discrimination at the federal level, and state and local jurisdictions contain laws restricting and punishing employment discrimination.