Last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a press release detailing its final statistics for fiscal year 2011, which ended September 30, 2011. In that press release, entitled “Private Sector Bias Charges Hit All-Time High,” the EEOC announced that in fiscal year 2011 the agency: 

• Received a record 99,947 charges of employment discrimination
• Obtained $91 million in relief from its litigation efforts, and $455.6 million in relief through its combined enforcement, mediation, and litigation programs
• Resolved 112,499 charges – representing, for the second year in a row, a greater number of charges resolved than charges received
• Set new records in its mediation program, with both a record number of resolutions (9,831) and benefits ($170 million)
• Filed 300 lawsuits, 261 of which were “merits” lawsuits (defined as direct suits and interventions by the EEOC alleging violations of the substantive provisions of the statutes it enforces, as well as suits to enforce administrative settlements), and 39 of which were subpoena enforcement or other actions. Of the 261 merits lawsuits, 23 were large class actions involving allegations of systemic discrimination
• Conducted public outreach and education programs reaching approximately 540,000 people

As the statistics reflect, charges of retaliation were the most numerous in fiscal year 2011, with 37.4% of the 99,947 total charges containing allegations of retaliation under any of the statutes enforced by the EEOC. Charges containing allegations of race and sex discrimination were the second and third most numerous, with 35.4% and 28.5% of all charges received containing such allegations, respectively. Notably, although allegations of race and sex discrimination were still quite numerous, these numbers actually represent a slight decline from the previous year. In contrast, the number of charges containing allegations of age and disability discrimination increased in fiscal year 2011, with 23.5% and 25.8% of total charges received, respectively, containing such allegations. The press release also highlights the newest anti-discrimination statute the EEOC is responsible for enforcing – the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). In its first full year of enforcing GINA, the EEOC received 245 charges alleging violations of that Act.

Please see full article below for further information.