Pennsylvania finally made hair discrimination illegal — here’s what changed

Governor signs CROWN Act into law

Pennsylvania now protects workers and students from hair discrimination.

Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the CROWN Act into law on Nov. 25, 2025, making Pennsylvania the 28th state to pass a version of the bill. CROWN stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.

The law takes effect Jan. 24, 2026, 60 days after the signing. Shapiro signed the bill at Island Design Natural Hair Studio in Philadelphia.

The law expands how race is defined

The CROWN Act amends the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act by expanding what “race” means under state law. It now includes traits tied to race, like hair texture and protective hairstyles.

That covers locs, braids, twists, coils, Bantu knots, afros, and extensions.

The law also broadens “religious creed” to include head coverings and hairstyles tied to religious practice. These protections apply across employment, education, and public spaces.

Most employers in the state are covered

The law applies to any employer with four or more workers in Pennsylvania. It also covers labor organizations and employment agencies.

Employers should take a close look at their grooming, dress code, and uniform policies to make sure they line up with the new rules.

Policies that rely on vague terms like “neat” or “well-groomed” could face closer review, since those standards have historically been used to target natural hairstyles.

Safety rules still have a path forward

The CROWN Act does not wipe out all hair-related workplace rules. Employers can still enforce restrictions, but they have to pass a four-part test.

The rule must protect the health or safety of an employee or others. It must connect to a real workplace need and apply equally to all workers.

The law also lets employers enforce rules that prevent a hostile work environment, as long as they apply those rules without discrimination.

Lawmakers pushed the bill for years

This law did not happen overnight. Rep. La’Tasha Mayes first started introducing CROWN Act bills in Pennsylvania back in 2018.

House Speaker Joanna McClinton worked on the effort for about six years. An earlier version passed the state House in 2023 but died in the Senate at the end of 2024.

Lawmakers reintroduced HB 439, and it passed the House 194-8 in March 2025. The Senate approved it 44-3 on Nov. 19, 2025.

Supporters point to real-world harm

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission reported about 916 racial discrimination complaints involving hair in 2022 alone.

Advocates say Black workers have lost jobs, been sent home, or been fired over how they wear their hair. Black children have also faced school suspensions over hairstyles tied to their racial identity.

Supporters say the law removes the pressure many Black Americans feel to chemically straighten or alter their natural hair just to meet workplace expectations.

Local protections came first in Pennsylvania

Parts of Pennsylvania were already ahead of the curve. Philadelphia became the first city in the state to ban hair discrimination in 2020.

Pittsburgh and Allegheny County passed their own local CROWN Act protections that same year.

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission had also included hair protections in its formal guidance before the law passed. The new state law now makes these protections uniform across all of Pennsylvania.

A national movement keeps growing

California started this wave in 2019, becoming the first state to pass a CROWN Act.

The movement grew out of the CROWN Coalition, which includes the National Urban League, Color of Change, and other groups. With Pennsylvania on board, 28 states now have some version of these protections.

All of Pennsylvania’s neighbors, including New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Maryland, and Virginia, already had similar laws on the books.

Congress has not passed a federal version

A federal CROWN Act was reintroduced in Congress in February 2025.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman filed H.R. 1638 in the House, and Sen. Cory Booker introduced S. 751 in the Senate. The bill passed the House in earlier sessions but the Senate blocked it each time.

Without a federal law, protections depend entirely on which state a person lives or works in. That leaves workers in 22 states without any CROWN Act coverage.

Workers can file complaints starting in Jan.

Workers in Pennsylvania who face hair discrimination after Jan. 24, 2026, can file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

The law protects job applicants too, not just people already on the payroll. Workers do not need to prove their employer meant to discriminate.

They just need to show a policy or action targeted hairstyles tied to race or religion. The same complaint process used for other discrimination cases applies here.

Momentum builds beyond Pennsylvania

More than 10 additional states have CROWN Act bills filed or pending. Pressure keeps building for a federal law that would cover all 50 states.

Even in states without CROWN Acts, employers are reviewing grooming policies because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has shown interest in hair discrimination claims.

The wide bipartisan margins in Pennsylvania, 194-8 in the House and 44-3 in the Senate, suggest these protections have support well beyond party lines.

Courts are catching up on hair and race

For decades, federal courts disagreed on whether hair discrimination counted as race discrimination. Some courts let employers ban styles like locs, even when those bans mostly affected Black workers.

State-level CROWN Acts are filling a gap that federal law has not closed.

Pennsylvania’s law makes clear that hair tied to racial or religious identity is protected, putting the state in step with a growing national standard.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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