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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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