is it OK for job postings to require a “clean-cut appearance”?

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

There is a small family-owned butcher shop near me. They list job postings on their Facebook page, and I’ve noticed every time they post for counter staff, that they include “clean-cut” or “clean-cut appearance” in their list of requirements for applicants. I don’t believe this is specifically about food handling/sanitation requirements, since the employees currently working at the counter there do not wear hair nets or hats.

This bothers me, largely because it feels wrong to consider appearance when making hiring decisions. Also, that particular phrasing only references hair directly, but to me it has 1950’s-small-town-USA connotations a la Pleasantville and so feels to me like it would also exclude tattoos, goth style, brightly-colored hair, extra-large bodies, or anything other than fairly generic-looking white people. I know I personally would feel uncomfortable applying there with “clean-cut” included, so I suspect others would also self-select out of applying.

Which leads to my questions:
• Is it illegal (in the U.S.) to use appearance as a criteria for job candidates? I suspect not, based on the existence of the Hooters chain, but maybe it is?
• Am I overreacting or reading too much into the term “clean-cut”?
• If the job posting is problematic and/or illegal, would it be any better if the business had a well-defined dress code prohibiting facial hair, visible tattoos, non-natural hair colors, etc. and the job posting just said “must be willing to adhere to dress code once hired”?

It’s not illegal in the U.S. to require a “clean-cut appearance” as long as it’s not used in ways that discriminate based on sex, race, religion, or other protected characteristics.

For example, courts have ruled that employers can prohibit facial hair on employees as long as they make exceptions for religious practices and people with conditions that make shaving painful.

They can also legally prohibit tattoos, goth style, and other specific appearance choices (again, as long as they make exceptions for protected classes).

There are a few jurisdictions in the U.S. that prohibit appearance discrimination, but they’re the exceptions and are usually narrowly defined. For example, Michigan prohibits discrimination based on height or weight, but not other appearance-related characteristics. Santa Cruz, Calif. protects physical characteristics from “birth, accident, or disease” that are otherwise “beyond the control of the person,” including height and weight (but excluding things like dress, grooming, tattoos, and piercings).

I do think you’re probably reading more into “clean-cut” than is typically intended, at least in terms of assuming it’s code for white (but I can also see how you got there, given our history).

Because the term does allow so much room for interpretation, it would be better for any employer using it to spell out exactly what it means to them — since for all we know, they’re fine with tattoos but hate long hair on men, or it’s really just about facial hair, or any number of other possibilities.