Nardone HR & Management Consulting (“Nardone Consultants”) regularly assists its clients with labor, employment, and human resource (“HR”) issues. When it comes to discrimination and harassment in the workplace, the issues we assist companies with include: (i) creating a respectful and inclusive workplace culture; (ii) conducting investigations and providing guidance on preventing discrimination and harassment; and (iii) responding to discrimination and harassment allegations and charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) or the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (“OCRC”). Please view our prior articles on: (i) Preventing Harassment in the Workplace Today and (ii) EEOC’s Roundtable Discussion on Preventing Harassment in the Workplace Today. In this article, we want to discuss EEOC’s recently released statistics on 2019's workplace discrimination charges.
A Breakdown for EEOC's Workplace Discrimination Charges
At the end of January 2020, EEOC released its' breakdown for the 72,675 workplace discrimination charges that it received in fiscal year (“FY”) 2019. Among other statistics, this breakdown included the specific number of charges and correlating percentages for each type of charge, which are as follows:
- Retaliation: 39,110 (53.8 percent of all charges filed)
- Disability: 24,238 (33.4 percent)
- Race: 23,976 (33.0 percent)
- Sex: 23,532 (32.4 percent)
- Age: 15,573 (21.4 percent)
- National Origin: 7,009 (9.6 percent)
- Color: 3,415 (4.7 percent)
- Religion: 2,725 (3.7 percent)
- Equal Pay Act: 1,117 (1.5 percent)
- Genetic Information: 209 (0.3 percent)
These percentages add up to more than 100% because some charges allege multiple bases. According to the breakdown of the charges, the FY 2019 data shows that retaliation continued to be the most frequently filed charge filed with the agency, followed by disability, race and sex. Additionally, EEOC also received 7,514 sexual harassment charges—10.3 percent of all charges, and a 1.2 percent decrease from FY 2018. Hopefully, this decrease of sexual harassment charges from 2018 to 2019 is a step in the right direction when it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace.
Contact Nardone Consultants
As a human resources consultant and employment attorney, Tanya Nardone has conducted many harassment investigations and anti-harassment trainings for clients. She has also defended clients against discrimination and harassment charges filed by employees or former employees. And, Tanya knows it is critical to minimize these and other disruptions in the workplace. To prevent and/or respond to allegations of discrimination and/or harassment, Nardone Consultants’ assists its' client by: (i) responding to discrimination or harassment charges filed with EEOC or OCRC; (ii) developing a customized employment handbook that includes an anti-harassment policy and related complaint procedure; or to (iii) providing training to prevent harassment and create a more respectful and inclusive workplace. If your company needs to: (i) evaluate and update its current policies, procedures, and practices on discrimination and harassment; (ii) conduct workplace sensitivity/harassment training; or (iii) respond to discrimination/harassment allegations/charges, contact Nardone Consultants.