Job Description: What It Means for Employers

What it means in practice

A job description usually names the position, explains why it exists, lists its main duties, and sets out required qualifications, physical and mental demands, working conditions and reporting lines. It is the document most other HR decisions borrow from: postings for talent acquisition, grading under job classification, the standards used in a performance review, and the analysis of work behaviors behind a selection test. Federal law rarely tells employers what a job description must say, but several laws give weight to what it says, or look past it to the work actually done.

Not required, but evidence. The EEOC's interpretive appendix to its ADA rule states that part 1630 does not require employers to develop or maintain job descriptions. The statute still makes one valuable. Under 42 U.S.C. 12111(8), a "qualified individual" can perform the essential functions of the job held or desired, with or without reasonable accommodation; consideration "shall be given to the employer's judgment" as to which functions are essential, and "if an employer has prepared a written description before advertising or interviewing applicants for the job, this description shall be considered evidence of the essential functions of the job." These rules bind employers with 15 or more employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year (12111(5)). See Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Essential versus marginal functions. The EEOC rule defines essential functions as "the fundamental job duties" of the position, not its marginal functions (29 CFR 1630.2(n)(1)). A function may be essential because the position exists to perform it, because few employees are available to share it, or because it is highly specialized (1630.2(n)(2)). Evidence includes the employer's judgment, written job descriptions prepared before advertising or interviewing, time spent on the function, the consequences of not requiring it, a collective bargaining agreement, and the experience of past and current incumbents (1630.2(n)(3)). The appendix says listed evidence gets no greater weight than unlisted evidence, so a description is one piece of evidence, not the final word.

On paper versus in fact. The appendix says the inquiry starts with whether the employer actually requires employees in the position to perform the function. Its example: an employer that calls typing essential but has never required anyone in the position to type has evidence that typing is not essential. Likewise, an employer requiring typing at 75 words per minute, or a hotel requiring 16 rooms cleaned a day, need not justify the level but "will have to show that it actually imposes such requirements on its employees in fact, and not simply on paper."

Qualifications in the description. The appendix describes a two-step test: whether the person meets prerequisites such as education, experience, skills and licenses, then whether the person can perform the essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation. Requirements written into a description are qualification standards, and 29 CFR 1630.10(a) makes it unlawful to use standards that screen out individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability unless they are job related and consistent with business necessity. Test validation is covered under work behavior.

Using the description in interviews. Under 29 CFR 1630.14(a), an employer may ask applicants about their ability to perform job-related functions and ask them to describe or demonstrate how, with or without reasonable accommodation, they will perform them. The EEOC's guide "The ADA: Your Responsibilities as an Employer" says such questions must not be phrased in terms of disability, and that asking whether an applicant is disabled, or requiring a medical examination, before a job offer is unlawful. It advises examining each job's essential functions "before taking an employment action such as recruiting, advertising, hiring, promoting or firing."

Accommodation and job restructuring. Reasonable accommodation may include job restructuring and reassignment to a vacant position (29 CFR 1630.2(o)(2)). The EEOC's Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship says an employer does not have to eliminate an essential function or lower production standards applied uniformly to all employees. Job restructuring includes reallocating marginal functions an employee cannot perform because of a disability and altering when or how a function is performed; "an employer never has to reallocate essential functions as a reasonable accommodation, but can do so if it wishes." Because that line decides what can be moved, the description is often the first document reviewed in the interactive process (1630.2(o)(3)).

Titles do not decide overtime exemption. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations, "a job title alone is insufficient to establish the exempt status of an employee"; status turns on whether salary and duties meet part 541 (29 CFR 541.2). The duties tests look at the "primary duty," the principal or most important duty, judged on all the facts with emphasis on the job as a whole (541.700(a)). Spending more than 50 percent of time on exempt work generally satisfies the requirement, but time alone is not the test (541.700(b)). Calling a role "manager" in a description does not change that analysis. See exempt vs. non-exempt employees.

Equal pay looks at job content. The Equal Pay Act bars paying one sex less than the other in the same establishment "for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions," except under a seniority, merit or production-based system or a factor other than sex (29 U.S.C. 206(d)(1)). Jobs need only be substantially equal, not identical (29 CFR 1620.13(a)), and the standard "depends rather on actual job requirements and performance" rather than titles; "clerk," for example, may cover duties too dissimilar to compare (1620.13(e)). Skill is measured by the job's performance requirements, so a skill the job does not need does not count (1620.15(a)). A description that matches the work helps explain a pay difference; one that does not carries little weight.

Job advertisements built from the description. Title VII makes it unlawful to publish an employment notice or advertisement "indicating any preference, limitation, specification, or discrimination, based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin," except where religion, sex or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification (42 U.S.C. 2000e-3(b); see 29 CFR 1604.5). The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, covering employers with 20 or more employees (29 U.S.C. 630(b)), bans age preferences in ads (623(e)). Under 29 CFR 1625.4, terms such as "young," "college student," "recent college graduate," "boy" or "girl" violate the Act unless an exception applies, while preferences for older individuals, such as "retirees," are allowed. Qualifications copied into an ad should describe the work, not the worker. See equal opportunity employer.

Where states differ: Washington pay transparency. Some states require pay information in postings; Washington is one example, not a complete list. Under RCW 49.58.110, an employer with 15 or more employees must disclose in each posting the wage scale or salary range (or the fixed wage, if that is all that is offered) and a general description of all benefits and other compensation. A "posting" is any solicitation to recruit applicants for a specific available position, directly or through a third party, electronic or printed, that includes qualifications for desired applicants. An employee offered an internal transfer or promotion must, on request, be given the range for the new position. The Department of Labor and Industries says the range should be the employer's genuinely expected range at the time of posting, created before posting if none exists, and that from July 27, 2025, a posting may not require a driver's license unless driving is an essential job function or part of the job's legitimate business purpose.

Washington remedies and the correction window. Applicants and employees may file with L&I or sue; statutory damages run from $100 to $5,000 per violation, and L&I may also assess a civil penalty of up to $500 for a first violation or $1,000 for a repeat violation (RCW 49.58.110(4) and (5)). For postings from July 27, 2025, through July 27, 2027, an employer that receives written notice of a noncompliant posting and corrects it within five business days, contacting any third-party posting site where applicable, cannot be assessed penalties or damages for that violation (49.58.110(1)(b)).

Recordkeeping. Employers subject to the Equal Pay Act must preserve records, including job evaluations and job descriptions, that describe or explain the basis for a wage differential between employees of the opposite sex in the same establishment, for at least two years (29 CFR 1620.32). Under 29 CFR 1602.14, personnel records, including hiring, promotion and pay records, are kept one year from the record or action, whichever is later, and all relevant records until final disposition of a Title VII, ADA or GINA charge. Dated versions show which description existed before a job was advertised.

Questions employers ask. Must we have job descriptions? No federal rule cited here requires them. Does the description decide which duties are essential? No; it is evidence alongside actual practice and other factors (29 CFR 1630.2(n)(3)). Can a title make a job exempt? No (29 CFR 541.2). Can jobs with different titles be equal work? Yes, if their actual skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions are substantially equal (29 CFR 1620.13). Must a description include pay? Federal law does not require it, but Washington requires a range in covered postings (RCW 49.58.110).

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