EEOC’s Enforcement and Litigation Capabilities Endure Despite COVID-19

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released its enforcement and litigation data for fiscal year 2020. COVID-19, it seems, did not impair the EEOC’s ability to enforce the nation’s equal employment opportunity laws. In 2020, the EEOC:

• received 67,448 charges of workplace discrimination;
• responded to more than 470,000 calls and more than 187,000 inquiries;
• resolved 70,804 charges and 165 merit lawsuits;
• secured $439.2 million for victims of discrimination;
• recovered $106 million through litigation (the most in 16 years); and
• was nearly perfect in court (95.8 percent success rate).

Retaliation remained the most frequently cited claim, accounting for more than half of all charges filed last year. Here is a breakdown of the charges received by the EEOC in 2020. Note that charges often allege more than one category of discrimination.

• Retaliation: 37,632 (55.8 percent of all charges filed)
• Disability: 24,324 (36.1 percent)
• Race: 22,064 (32.7 percent)
• Sex: 21,398 (31.7 percent)
• Age: 14,183 (21.0 percent)
• National Origin: 6,377 (9.5 percent)
• Color: 3,562 (5.3 percent)
• Religion: 2,404 (3.6 percent)
• Equal Pay Act: 980 (1.5 percent)
• Genetic Information: 440 (0.7 percent)

Employers must have a policy prohibiting discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Managers and employees must be trained to prevent and avoid unlawful behavior. Employers need Employment Practices Liability Insurance to cover the high cost of defending actual and alleged claims of unlawful conduct. Why? The EEOC is watching and offending employers are paying.

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