On Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released its enforcement and litigation data from the 2020 fiscal year.
The agency resolved 70,804 charges in 2020 and secured $439.2 million for victims of employment discrimination. Among their efforts, EEOC employees fielded over 470,000 phone calls and responded to more than 187,000 field office inquiries, including 122,775 online submissions.
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EEOC increased its merit factor resolution rate to 17.4%, nearly 2% higher than the previous year. Merit factor resolutions include settlements, withdrawals with benefits, successful conciliations and unsuccessful conciliations.
“Despite an incredibly challenging year, the EEOC’s dedicated workforce advanced the agency’s mission to fight employment discrimination on all fronts.” – EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows
Retaliation was the most common claim in the 2020 fiscal year, as it has been in years past, amounting to 55.8% of all charges filed. Other charges received by the EEOC include:
- Retaliation: 37,632 (55.8%)
- Disability: 24,324 (36.1%)
- Race: 22,064 (32.7%)
- Sex: 21,398 (31.7%)
- Age: 14,183 (21.0%)
- National Origin: 6,377 (9.5%)
- Color: 3,562 (5.3%)
- Religion: 2,404 (3.6%)
- Equal Pay Act: 980 (1.5%)
- Genetic Information: 440 (0.7%)
Total percentages are greater than 100 due to some charges alleging multiple bases.
Learn more about these claims in more detail at www.eeoc.gov.
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