In a report on its fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, the EEOC disclosed a number of interesting statistics relating to the filings of discrimination that it received in that year.
1. The number of new filings fell just short of 100,000, an increase of 7 per cent over the previous year.
2. Claims for retaliation (which we have repeatedly warned were on the increase and about which we have written often in an effort to educate employers) is now the number one category of filings for the first time in the EEOC’s 45 year history. With regard to alleged underlying discrimination, race and sex discrimination claims are now number one and two, with disability claims increasing the fastest over the previous year.
3. Claims under the newly passed Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”) totaled 201 — which we can expect to rise as the statute becomes more widely known.
The increase in filings is not surprising given the recessionary economy, in which more workers have been terminated and jobs are harder to find, and given the increase in EEOC funding. The EEOC also claims that contributing to this increase is its new filing procedures, as well as the effect of the new amendments to the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.