Last month, the EEOC released its annual enforcement statistics for the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2019. It received 72,675 Charges in the last fiscal year (a 4% decrease from last year) and, like last year, approximately 3% of those were filed in Ohio. Retaliation remains the most common form of allegation made in Charges of Discrimination, being asserted in over half of all charges filed. About the same percentage of Charges were filed on the basis of race, sex and disability (approximately 32% each). There was a slight decrease in the number of sexual harassment and age discrimination charges filed. (Obviously, Charges may contain more than one type of allegation).
The EEOC also reported that it resolved 80,806 charges of discrimination (compared to the 72,675 filed) to continue to reduce its long-standing backlog. It reported that it had filed 144 lawsuits, resolved 173 lawsuits and recovered $39.1M through litigation. The EEOC secured approximately $346.6M prior to litigation (a reduction from past years) and other relief.
As for the pre-litigation resolution of Charges, 6.6% were resolved through settlement and 6.1% were withdrawn by the Charging Party (without a formal settlement) with benefits. More than fourteen percent were administratively closed (which likely means that the Charging Party could not be located or had stopped returning calls). Almost 70% of Charges were dismissed for lacking probable cause (i.e., lacked merit or proof). All of these statistics are similar with the prior year. Only 3% of Charges (approximately 2,385 of the Charges) were found after an investigation to assert probable cause of discrimination. This is a decrease over last year. Less than half of these Charges were successfully conciliated prior to litigation.
