According to preliminary enforcement statistics contained in the annual Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) released recently by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency received 84,252 charges of discrimination in Fiscal Year 2017, down 8% from the 91,503 charges filed in FY 2016. Perhaps as a result, the agency was able to make major progress in reducing its charge backlog by more than 16%, bringing the pending charge inventory to its lowest level in ten years. On the litigation front, the EEOC more than doubled the number of lawsuits filed as compared to FY 2016.
These are among the highlights of the agency’s FY 2017 PAR, an annual report that the EEOC is required by law to prepare and submit to the U.S. Congress and the President. Because the EEOC has jurisdiction over both private and public employers, including the federal government, the PAR contains enforcement data regarding both private and public sector employers.
Detailed final statistics on the EEOC’s FY 2017 charge and enforcement and litigation activity by category will not be published until sometime early next year. As in previous years, however, the PAR does provide preliminary statistics that present a good overview of the agency’s overall enforcement efforts over the past twelve months.
A copy of the EEOC’s FY 2017 PAR is available here. URL for “here”:
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.