Is it illegal to ask if a candidate has children?
Questions about children, pregnancy, marital status or childcare are high-risk because they correlate with protected characteristics. Ask directly about the schedule or travel the job requires instead.
“Do you have kids?” feels like small talk but can support a discrimination claim, since it surfaces family and (often) sex-based assumptions. The same is true of questions about marriage, pregnancy, or childcare plans.
If your real concern is availability (evening shifts, travel, on-call), ask about that directly and ask it of every candidate.
Risky phrasing
“Do you have kids, or plan to soon?”
Compliant rewrite
This role has occasional evening shifts and travel. Can you meet that schedule?
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