Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Statistics for Fiscal Year 2015

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation or gender identity), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to discriminate or retaliate against a person because the individual complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

Most employers with at least 15 employees are covered by EEOC laws (20 employees in age discrimination cases). Most labor unions and employment agencies are also covered.
The laws apply to all types of work situations, including hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits.

At the end of each fiscal year, the agency releases statistics which show the number of new discrimination charges which were received along with the amount of money collected from various employers as a result of litigation and other proceedings. The statistics for FY 2015 were recently released. The total number of new charges received was 89,385, which was 607 more than the prior year. The agency also breaks out the total charges by category. The top six are listed below:

• Retaliation – 39,757 charges which equals 44.5% of all charges received
• Race – 31,027 charges which equals 34.7% of all charges received
• Sex – 26,396 charges which equals 29.5% of all charges received
• Age – 20,144 charges which equals 22.5% of all charges received
• National Origin – 9,438 charges which equals 10.6% of all charges received
• Religion – 3,502 charges which equals 3.9% of all charges received

It is interesting to note that retaliation received the largest number of charges.

Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly. Retaliation has received the largest number of charges each year for the last 7 years in a row. All employers should take note of this statistic and insure that no employee who files a charge with the EEOC is retaliated against in any way.

As a result of these charges, the EEOC filed 142 lawsuits alleging discrimination during FY 2015. The agency subsequently secured more than $525 million for the employee victims of discrimination. As a rule, the agency routinely wins over 90% of the discrimination lawsuits which it files against employers.

A company’s best defense against the potential expense and aggravation related to federal or State law violations is to proactively review and revise as needed their Human Resources policies, handbooks, hiring procedures, compensation, benefits, training programs, communications tools and other functions. The professionals of PHHR are ready to assist your organization maintain compliance with the latest state and federal mandates.

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Paul Hilton is a certified Human Resources Consultant, located in Columbia, SC.
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