Employment Discrimination Charges On the Rise

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has managed to receive nearly 100,000 charges of employment discrimination which is an all-time high. A record has been set on the number of charges of employment discrimination. However, while there have been a number of charges made against different employers, the Commission has manage to resolve a lot of these charges, creating over 100,000 resolutions.

Within the past fiscal year, more than 5 million employees have benefits greatly from the changes that have been made with the employment policies in the workplace. The EEOC, along with it mediation programs and litigation programs, were able to provide more than $455 million worth of relief to private sectors, state, local employees, and a number of applicants as well. This has been an increase of over $45 million.

The mediation program alone has reached some new heights, creating nearly 10,000 resolutions for different employers. The Commission itself filed just about 300 lawsuits which ended up providing more than $91 million dollars in relief to those who filed the employment discrimination charges. Over 20 of the different lawsuits that were filed involved a large group of people, not just one individual. And, just about 67 other lawsuits filed involved several individuals as well, but typically less than 20 different individuals.

The Chair of the EEOC, Jacqueline Berrien, has said, “For the second year in a row, the EEOC received a record number of new charges of discrimination.” She also says, “Nevertheless, the hard work of our employees, combined with increased investments in training, technology and staffing in 2009 and 2010, and strategic management of existing resources made 2011 a year of extraordinary achievements for the EEOC.”

The entire number of employment discrimination charges that were received was up higher from the prior fiscal year. The vast majority of these employment discrimination cases were based upon sexual discrimination. Just about 28,534 of the employment discrimination allegations were based on sexual discrimination. In the meantime, 25,742 employment discrimination allegations were based on disability discrimination. And, 23,465 employment discrimination allegations were based on age discrimination. Many of the most common disability discrimination allegations were based on back problems and impairments, along with depression, diabetes, and orthopedic impairments. Because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, many of the individuals who claim to have been discriminated against due to their disability have received some sort of monetary compensation for the discrimination that took place against them.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has the responsibility of making sure that the people know their rights and that these rights are enforced. Such rights include the Civil Rights Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Equal Pay Act, amongst several other Acts’ as well.