Workplace Issues - Workplace Discrimination

We turn now to a discussion of discrimination and harassment in the workplace. The chart presents data on the number of charges that were filed with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) between 1993 and 2001. The EEOC is the federal agency responsible for the administrative and judicial enforcement of our federal civil rights laws. This chart shows the number of individual cases filed each year and the total number of charges filed. A case may include more than one charge. Cases filed in 2001 averaged 1.46 charges per case, up from 1.31 charges per case in 1993.

The number of cases filed in 2001 is lower than the number filed in 1993. But charges per case are up. Fewer individuals filed cases containing more charges.

Discrimination and harassment in the workplace are inherently difficult social phenomena to track. The range of potentially discriminatory acts is great. Generalizing about them is difficult. The legal definitions for discrimination and harassment have changed over time. This, again, makes it difficult to compare cases over time. Finally, a large percentage of claims arise as the result of layoffs. During times of low unemployment and strong economic growth, the number of people laid off drops.

Some people argue that workplace discrimination and harassment are much more common than are reported. There are no reliable data to quantify this assertion. We therefore rely on the statistical data collected by the EEOC in an effort to chart trends in the work-place.

By charting the number of cases and charges brought before the EEOC over a period of years, we get an overview of the subject. But it is important to realize that fewer than half of all cases (48%) are determined, by the EEOC, to be based on "reasonable cause." More than half are abandoned, withdrawn, or dismissed on a finding of "no reasonable cause." During the period shown, fewer than one out of five plaintiffs won the case that he or she filed.

As a result, in our next panels we will concentrate on those cases found to have reasonable cause. In an attempt to understand the trends in discrimination, we will look next at cases by eight categories — those based on discrimination because of age, disability, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, and sex — and at sexual harassment cases.

Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Charge Statistics FY 1992 through FY 2001, available online at http://www.eeoc.gov/stats/charges.html.