Employment Bias Complaints Against Private Sector at All-Time High: EEOC
Employment discrimination complaints against private sector employers reached an all-time high in the most recent fiscal year, federal regulators said late last month. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said it received a record 99,947 charges of employment discrimination and obtained $455.6 million in relief through its administrative program and litigation in fiscal year 2011.
The commission said it resolved more charges than it took in with 112,499 resolutions (7,500 more resolutions than FY 2010 — an increase of 7 percent) — leaving 78,136 pending charges, a 10 percent decrease in its inventory, the first year the agency has seen a reduction since 2002.
EEOC said its FY 2011 data also show:
- In both the private and federal sectors, 5.4 million individuals benefited from changes in employment policies or practices in their workplace in FY 2011.
- The EEOC obtained a record $455.6 million in relief for private sector, state, and local employees and applicants, a more than $51 million increase from the past fiscal year and continuing the upward trend of the past three fiscal years.
- The mediation program reached record resolution levels — 9,831 (5 percent more than FY 2010’s 9,362), and benefits — $170 million ($28 million more than FY 2010).
- The EEOC filed 300 lawsuits and its litigation efforts resulted in $91 million of relief, representing the third year in a row that the relief obtained was greater than in the preceding year. Twenty-three of the lawsuits filed involved systemic allegations involving large numbers of people and an additional 67 had multiple victims (less than 20).
“For the second year in a row, the EEOC received a record number of new charges of discrimination,” EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien said.
The total number of charges received was up slightly from last fiscal year’s record total. Charges alleging retaliation under all the statutes the EEOC enforces were the most numerous at 37,334 charges received, or 37.4 percent of all charges, closely followed by charges involving claims of race discrimination at 35,395 charges or 35.4 percent.
While charges with race and sex discrimination allegations declined from the previous year, charges with the two other most frequently-cited allegations increased: disability discrimination (25,742) and age discrimination (23,465).
The EEOC is responsible for enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.