Sometime before the summer, New York City’s Council will approve a bill that would ban weight discrimination in hiring and housing.

The bill would outlaw discrimination based on a person’s weight or height in jobs, housing, and public accommodations. The legislation is aimed at protecting people from being fired or denied housing because of their weight as part of a larger effort to combat discrimination and promote equality in New York City.

Currently, only a few cities and states in the US have laws in place that ban weight discrimination. San Francisco, Binghamton, Madison, and Urbana are among the cities that prohibit discrimination against people because of their weight. There is currently a bill prohibiting body size discrimination before the Massachusetts Legislature.

The state of Michigan is the only state in the country that has passed a law to declare weight as a protected category from discrimination. The state of Washington considers obesity a disability, which means anyone labeled obese is protected under the Washington Law Against Discrimination. However, in most places in the US, weight discrimination is still legal.

As Attorney Tim George points out:

“It’s truly remarkable that weight discrimination is still legal in much of the United States because there is no law in the relevant jurisdiction prohibiting it.”

While federal law prohibits employment discrimination based on traits such as age, disability, race, religion, and sex, it does not include weight as a protected category. This means that people who have been treated unfairly because of their weight have limited legal recourse. Weight discrimination is prevalent in the US workplace, and studies have shown that it can have negative effects on job opportunities, pay, and mental health.

As Vox reported back in November, this is a far more prevalent problem than many people think it is. Forty percent of Americans reported that they have experienced discrimination based on their weight.

Yet as CNBC reported three years ago, little is being done about this serious social issue. As an article in Society for Human Resource Management points out, many employers have taken the lead in creating policies to ban weight discrimination in the workplace.

A starting point for legislative change is a national conversation about weight bias, to help create a stronger culture of inclusion and respect. Providing anti-bias training can also help to address weight discrimination. Some employers are taking steps to address weight discrimination by prohibiting discrimination based on personal appearance, which could encompass weight.

From employee advocacy groups, to zero-tolerance policies, to education and communication initiatives aimed at shifting the culture of the workplace, these have positively moved the mark at individual companies, yet absent federal legalization, employees are faced with the reality that a move from one company to the next or one state to the next might find themselves moving from an open and friendly to a more hostile work environment.

New York is taking a long-anticipated leadership role here. A city as complex and large as New York is a perfect testing ground for weight discrimination legislation that can and should be tailored to fit the needs of other cities across the nation.

Aron Solomon, JD, is the chief legal analyst for Esquire Digital