May 17, 2024
EEOC Publishes Its 2023 Charges Statistics
On Friday, May 17th, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published its ‘FY 2023 charge statistics. I find this year’s trends as interesting as last year’s.
For the 14th year in a row (that’s right!), of all the charges filed, retaliation was the #1 basis. That is almost to be expected at this point. What fascinated me was that national origin came in 5th place. In my 30-ish years of watching these results, I do not recall nor do the EEOC’s status show this has ever been the case. I suspect this may be the result of global events and conflicts that creep into the workplace and people vigorously express their beliefs or support for certain individuals, countries, or causes and those expressions clash with others. The clashes may then lead one or more individuals to feel they are subjected to a hostile work environment, even when those clashes are via social media and/or take place outside of work.
Last year’s interesting result was that the percent of charges filed based on religion increased nearly 5-fold. Even the EEOC published a comment that was likely due to COVID-19. Charges may have been filed by employees or applicants who requested an accommodation or exception to an employer’s vaccine mandate, the employer declined, and the employee or applicant then filed a charge. This year, religion fell back into 7th place. So, what are the top five this year?
- Retaliation at 56.80%
- Disability at 36%
- Race at 33.90%
- Sex at 31.4%
- National Origin at 8.60%
Practical application. You may want to include this data in your corporate anti-harassment training. Let employees, particularly managers, know the trends and for what they should be on the lookout. Help them be your eyes and ears.
