EEOC Increases Monetary Penalty
On March 21, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published a final rule, adjusting its civil monetary penalty for violations of the notice-posting requirements in Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act. The maximum penalty per violation will be $559, an increase from $545. The adjustment for inflation is mandated under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. The final rule is effective on April 22.
Highlights From EEOC’s FY 2018 Enforcement and Litigation Data
The EEOC also recently released breakdowns for the 76,418 charges of workplace discrimination the agency received in fiscal year 2018, which ended September 30, 2018. The Enforcement and Litigation Statistics for FY 2018 are posted on the agency’s website, which also includes detailed breakdown of charges by state.
According to the data, retaliation continued to be the charge most frequently filed with the EEOC, followed by sex, both nationally and in Hawaii. The next three most frequently filed charges in Hawaii were disability, age, then race; while nationally, the order was disability, race, and then age. Specifically, the charge numbers show the following breakdowns by bases alleged:
|
Basis |
% of Hawaii charges filed |
% of National charges filed |
|---|---|---|
|
Retaliation |
55.5% |
51.6% |
|
Sex |
38.2% |
32.3% |
|
Disability |
32.3% |
32.2% |
|
Age |
29.9% |
22.1% |
|
Race |
26.8% |
32.2% |
|
National Origin |
15.7% |
9.3% |
|
Color |
7.1% |
4.1% |
|
Religion |
3.9% |
3.7% |
|
Equal Pay Act |
1.6% |
1.4% |
|
Genetic Information |
0.4% |
0.3%` |
Note: These percentages add up to more than 100 because some charges alleged multiple bases.
According to the Report, of the 13,055 charges of sex-based harassment, 7,609 were sexual harassment charges, which is a 13.6 percent increase from FY 2017. The EEOC also reported that it obtained $56.6 million in monetary benefits for victims of sexual harassment.
The EEOC additionally reported that it resolved 90,558 charges of discrimination and reported filing 199 merits lawsuits alleging discrimination in FY 2018.
If you want to keep discrimination and harassment out of your workplace, HEC can help! We offer training to supervisors and employees through our Fundamentals of Supervision series and in-house programs.
EEO-1 Pay Data Announcement
This update is part of our continuing coverage of the saga that is the EEO-1 survey. On April 3, the EEOC advised the court that it would collect, through an outside contractor, 2018 EEO-1 Component 2 pay data from employers by September 30, 2019. Plaintiffs took issue with various allegations in the EEOC’s April 3 filing, arguing that the EEOC should develop a plan to collect the Component 2 data by the May 31 deadline. On April 11, the Court set a hearing for April 16 for the parties to present their arguments. We will continue to keep you updated on further developments.