Now you’re facing an investigation, a hearing, legal fees, and possibly a judgment. Your general liability policy won’t touch it. Your workers’ comp policy won’t either. That gap is what Employment Practices Liability Insurance covers. And in Palm Beach County, the rules that trigger it reach a lot smaller than most business owners expect.
A six-person shop is outside the state and federal statutes, and inside the county ordinance.
Mon–Fri 9am–6pm · Sat 10am–4pm · English + Spanish
Most business owners hear “discrimination law” and think: “I only have six people. That doesn’t apply to me.” In Palm Beach County, that assumption is wrong. Florida’s Civil Rights Act covers employers with 15 or more employees. Federal law (Title VII, the ADA) also starts at 15. But Palm Beach County has its own Equal Employment Ordinance — and its definition of “employer” starts at five (5) employees for four or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year (Palm Beach County Code § 2-263).
One third of the state and federal floor. Three times faster to cross. A shop with a half-dozen employees, a cleaning company, a small catering operation — they're outside Florida's Civil Rights Act and outside Title VII. They're inside the county ordinance. This is the most locally-specific fact on this page, verified at the codified county text, not a brochure.
If you employ people in Lake Worth Beach, you’re operating under four overlapping employment-discrimination regimes at once. They don’t all agree on who’s covered, what’s protected, or where a complaint goes.
| Layer | Employer threshold | Extra protected categories | Filing clock | Enforcer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal (Title VII / ADA / GINA) | 15+ employees, 20 calendar weeks | Disability, genetic information | 180 days → 300 (FL is a deferral state) | EEOC (Miami District) |
| Florida (FCRA, F.S. ch. 760) | 15 employees, 20 weeks | Pregnancy, age, handicap, marital status | 365 days | FCHR |
| Palm Beach County (Equal Employment Ordinance, Code §§ 2-261–2-312) | 5 employees, 4 weeks | Familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information | 180 days, sworn + in writing | County Office of Equal Opportunity + Equal Employment Board |
| Lake Worth Beach (Lake Worth Civil Rights Act, Code ch. 20 art. I) | Florida's 15 / 20-week test (FCRA adopted by reference) | Adds sexual orientation and gender identity or expression | Florida's 365-day clock | State FCHR — the city creates no separate board or deadline |
Three things worth noting: the county ordinance is county-wide — it applies identically in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Wellington, and here; it is not a Lake Worth Beach-specific law. The city ordinance routes to the state — Lake Worth Beach adopted Florida’s Civil Rights Act by reference, added two protected categories, and sends all complaints to the FCHR. And the county’s additional categories matter — none of them appear in Florida’s FCRA list. An employer relying on the state list alone would miss them.
When a current, former, or prospective employee files with Palm Beach County’s Office of Equal Opportunity, here is what happens — not as legal advice, but as a description of a public process:
The county’s Office of Equal Opportunity has a walk-in office at 301 North Olive Avenue, 10th Floor, West Palm Beach — a few miles up the coast, a different city from Lake Worth Beach. The EEOC’s Miami District Office publishes no local street address and routes filers to an online portal.
Palm Beach County OEO — sworn written complaint → County Equal Employment Board
EEOC (Florida is a deferral state) → Federal court / EEOC enforcement
FCHR → State administrative hearing / state court
A complainant can choose their forum. The clock they miss closes one door, not all of them. An employer who thinks the county’s 180-day window has passed may still be facing the state’s 365-day clock. This is why a claim coming in months after a termination isn’t unusual — the windows are long by design.
Your general liability policy won’t pay for a wrongful-termination defense — the ISO Employment-Related Practices exclusion (form CG 21 47) specifically removes employment-practices claims from CGL coverage. Your workers’ comp policy covers on-the-job injuries; it doesn’t respond to a discrimination complaint. (Florida’s workers’ comp law separately prohibits retaliation for filing a comp claim — F.S. § 440.205 — which is itself an employment-practices exposure, not a comp benefit.)
EPLI is the policy that closes that gap. It responds to claims by employees, applicants, and former employees for wrongful termination, discrimination (including the county’s expanded category list), sexual harassment and hostile work environment, retaliation, failure to promote, and defamation and invasion of privacy.
For the full coverage architecture — claims-made mechanics, retroactive dates, the wage-and-hour exclusion, third-party endorsements, and how EPLI compares to E&O, workers’ comp, and D&O — see the Florida EPLI overview page. That’s where the depth lives. This page covers what’s different in Palm Beach County.
Outside the county ordinance's scope, outside Florida's FCRA, outside most federal laws. Florida is an at-will state and does not recognize a general common-law wrongful-discharge claim — but breach of contract, defamation, and negligent retention carry no employee-count threshold, and neither do wage-and-hour claims, which standard EPLI usually excludes. So the picture isn't clean even here.
Inside the Palm Beach County ordinance. Outside Florida's FCRA and outside Title VII / ADA. An employer in this range can be hauled before the county's Equal Employment Board. A six-person restaurant, a small contractor with a crew, a boutique shop: not exempt from employment-discrimination law — just operating under a county law most owners have never heard of.
Inside everything — county, state, and federal.
For the specific question of whether your business is covered by any given ordinance, that’s a question for your own employment attorney. What we can do is make sure your insurance reflects the actual risk landscape — before a complaint gets filed.
Employment practices insurance is sold by carriers, online platforms, and national brokers. Most of them will never mention the Palm Beach County Equal Employment Ordinance. Most of them don’t know what the five-employee threshold means for a small South Florida business.
A & J Insurance Services has been working with Palm Beach County businesses since 2007. We shop multiple A-rated carriers to find the right EPLI placement for your business — standalone or as part of a broader commercial program. Roberto answers his own phone. When you call, you’re talking to the person who placed your coverage. For businesses with five employees or more, the exposure is real. The question is whether your insurance reflects it.
A & J Insurance Services · 807 Lucerne Ave. East Unit, Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460 · (561) 586-4955 · Mon–Fri 9am–6pm · Sat 10am–4pm · English + Spanish
Agency FL License #L051810 · NPN 9894692 · Agent of Record: Roberto Ramos Jr. · FL License #P111106 · NPN 9567168
Employment law is complex and changes. This page describes publicly available ordinances and general insurance concepts for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice, and nothing here constitutes a coverage determination, legal conclusion, or prediction about any claim or proceeding. For questions about your specific situation, consult your own employment attorney and your insurance agent.
