> Is it discrimination if I own a company and only hire my friends who are into the same things as me?

Yes, any time you make a decision which treats people differently on any basis, is it is discrimination.

What you probably mean to ask is whether it is illegal discrimination. For which the answer is more complicated. It doesn't seem to be directly illegal discrimination, unless “into the same things” itself directly involves protected characteristics like religion. But it could still be illegal as disparate impact discrimination [0], if it has differential impact on a protected axis without sufficient business necessity.

[0] https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-...

‘any time you make a decision‘ is a discrimination between choice A and B.

If you are in the US, federal discrimination laws only apply if you have a certain number of employees.

Your state may have a specific and more restrictive law, but you are free to be as discriminatory as you want until you have at least 15 employees (under Federal law).

https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/small-business/small-business...

The difference between 15 and 20 on just age discrimination seems very arbitrary. How did they even come up with that instead of just putting it together with the rest of the stuff?

I wish I knew.

I have never found any source remotely close to it but it would be nice if we had a revision history on laws so we could see who added what lines and why. I'm guessing it is out there in some official record.

Serious answer: Yes, but it's legal discrimination. If you were doing so based on sex, race, or other protected class it would be illegal discrimination.

Yes. But then hiring itself is discriminatory unless it's random.. The whole point of interviews is to discriminate.

Back to the spirit of your question; it is legal discrimination. Frankly I support your ability to hire who you want at your company within legal bounds. I also support teams hiring people who will go to the pub so shrug.

If that implies that you're taking potential jobs away from people who would be better qualified, then absolutely. If the alternative is to just not hire anyone, then I don't see the problem—at that point you're basically paying friends to keep you company at your job.

Are you hiring them because you know them and you trust them? That is not discrimination. Are you hiring them because you want to win the tech-company beach volleyball tournament? That's discrimination.

You could probably get away with it. Would you feel good about yourself? Would you feel pissed if you found out that you didn't get a job you really wanted, only because another company was trying to fill out their rugby team?

Not really following your example, but let's say I hired them because I wanted to have someone to play multiplayer games with in the office. I give them money, and we both have a good time. The question is whether it's discrimination or not. To spice up the (highly hypothetical) example even more: I don't really need to hire anyone but I'm rich and want to be surrounded by friends so either they get hired to play games with me or the job isn't happening at all. No-one is missing out on the job... but could it still be discrimination?

Also, whether I trust them or not does not seem to matter according to your sibling comments.