March 31, 2022
EEOC Publishes ‘FY 2021 Charge Stats & Announces Non-Binary Self-ID
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently published the charge statistics for its fiscal year 2021. For the 12th year in a row, retaliation was the #1 basis of all charges filed. Other interesting trends (OK, interesting to me, anyway) were (by percentage):
- For the third year in a row, disability-based charges were in second place;
- those outnumbered race-based charges, which were the third most frequently cited;
- also, for the third year in a row, sex-based charges were the fourth most-frequently cited; and
- for the 7th year in a row, the percentage of color-based charges increased – a trend of which employers may want to take note.
Shortly thereafter, March 31, 2022, marked the first national “Transgender Day of Visibility.” Not coincidentally, on the same day, the EEOC announced it, “will promote greater equity and inclusion for members of the LGBTQI+ community by giving individuals the option to select a nonbinary “X” gender marker during the voluntary self-identification questions that are part of the intake process for filing a charge of discrimination.”
That announcement ran concurrently with the White House’s Fact Sheet covering multi-agency coordination of efforts to enhance opportunities, rights and protections for LGBTQI+ individuals from the Departments of State and Education, DHS, DOJ, HHS, OMB, SSA, and more.
Consider these trends and share them with your management team members in related training programs. Awareness of current trends can assist in monitoring workplace behaviors. That can assist in taking reasonable care to prevent and correct incivility and unprofessional conduct, which can give rise to charges and claims of real or perceived harassment and discrimination,
