Government Shutdown Leads to Fewer EEOC Charges, But Retaliation Claims Continue to Lead the Pack
Posted in Discrimination
The EEOC released its FY2014 (Oct. 1, 2013 Sept. 30, 2014) enforcement statistics last week.
Overall, the EEOC reported a decrease in filed charges compared with recent years. The agency attributed the 5.2 percent decline from FY2013, at least partially to the government shutdown in October 2013. However, it also appears that apart from the shutdown, charges are slightly declining in recent years with FY2013 showing a 5.7 percent decline from the prior year.
As in prior years, retaliation claims were the most frequently filed charge in FY2014. As such, it may be timely to revisit your anti-retaliation policies and other prevention measures. The EEOC reported the FY2014 breakdown of charge allegations nationwide as follows:
- Retaliation under all statutes: 37,955 (42.8% of all charges filed)
- Race (including racial harassment): 31,073 (35%)
- Sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment): 26,027 (29.3%)
- Disability: 25,369 (28.6%)
- Age: 20,588 (23.2%)
- National Origin: 9,579 (10.8%)
- Religion: 3,549 (4.0%)
- Color: 2,756 (3.1%)
- Equal Pay Act: 938 (1.1%)
- Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act: 333 (0.4%)
Minnesota bucked the national trend of declining charge numbers with a near-level total of 981 total charges compared with 982 in FY2013. State charge allegations generally followed the national trend, but with higher rates of retaliation, disability, and age charges.
- Retaliation under all statutes: 567 (57.8% of charges filed in Minnesota)
- Disability: 376 (38.3%)
- Race (including racial harassment): 360 (36.7%)
- Sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment): 260 (26.5%)
- Age: 266 (27.1%)
- National Origin: 122 (12.4%)
- Religion: 41 (3.8%)
- Color: 37 (3.8%)
- Equal Pay Act: 17 (1.7%)
- Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act: 6 (0.6%)
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