According to a recently released categorical breakdown of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 enforcement and litigation statistics, the percentage of unlawful retaliation claims filed with the EEOC reached an all-time high last year, with 48.8% – or nearly one out of every two – of the charges filed with the EEOC containing a retaliation claim.
Overall, the final FY 2017 statistics reveal that the EEOC received a total of 84,254 discrimination charges last year, about 8% fewer than were filed in FY 2016. In addition, the EEOC reports that it resolved 99,109 pending charges last year, the most since FY 2012.
Interestingly, the number of sexual harassment claims – which the EEOC has been tracking separately since FY 2010 – actually went down in FY 2017 as compared to the previous year, suggesting that the anticipated impact of the “#metoo movement” on workplace discrimination claims had yet to be felt, at least as of September 30 of last year.
On the litigation front, EEOC lawyers filed 184 merits lawsuits in FY 2017, over twice as many as in FY 2016. The EEOC’s preliminary enforcement numbers from FY 2017 show that Title VII violations were asserted as the statutory basis for discrimination most often (107 lawsuits), followed by disability claims (76) brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) .
A detailed breakdown of the EEOC’s final FY 2017 charge and litigation statistics with accompanying charts and tables is available here.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.