Recently the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released detailed breakdowns for charges of workplace discrimination in 2018.
The EEOC resolved 90,558 charges of discrimination; and overall, secured $505 million for victims in private sector, state and local government, and federal workplaces.
The 2018 data shows that retaliation continued to be the #1 most frequently filed charge, followed by sex, disability and race. The agency also received 7,609 sexual harassment charges – a 13.6 percent increase from FY 2017 – and obtained $56.6 million in monetary benefits for victims of sexual harassment. The charge numbers presented were:
- Retaliation: 39,469 (51.6 percent of all charges filed)
- Sex: 24,655 (32.3 percent)
- Disability: 24,605 (32.2 percent)
- Race: 24,600 (32.2 percent)
- Age: 16,911 (22.1 percent)
- National Origin: 7,106 (9.3 percent)
- Color: 3,166 (4.1 percent)
- Religion: 2,859 (3.7 percent)
- Equal Pay Act: 1,066 (1.4 percent)
- Genetic Information: 220 (.3 percent)
It is important to protect your workforce by following the steps below to avoid retaliation:
- Monitor your workplace. For instance if a complaint is received against an employee by a manager, make sure the manger is not retaliating against the employee.
- Make sure you have a retaliation policy, communicate the policy to employees, and enforce the policy, no matter who it is.
- Act on complaints and investigate appropriately.
- Train your managers on the importance of not retaliating.
- Watch yourself and document your actions.
For more information, please visit the eeoc website at: www.eeoc.com.
