The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released detailed breakdowns for the 76,418 charges of workplace discrimination the agency received in fiscal year 2018. The comprehensive enforcement and litigation statistics for FY 2018, which ended Sept. 30, 2018. The EEOC resolved 90,558 charges of discrimination. Overall, the EEOC secured $505 million for victims in private sector, state and local government, and federal workplaces.
The EEOC final fiscal year 2018 data highlighting its ramped-up efforts to combat and prevent workplace harassment. EEOC reported a 13.6 percent increase in sexual harassment charges and a 50 percent increase in lawsuits filed alleging sexual harassment. Hits on the EEOC’s sexual harassment webpage doubled since the start of the #MeToo movement one year ago.
The agency reduced the charge workload by 19.5 percent to 49,607. It achieved this through deploying new strategies to more efficiently prioritize charges with merit, more quickly resolve investigations, and improve the agency’s digital systems. The agency handled over 519,000 calls to its toll-free number, 34,600 emails and more than 200,000 inquiries in field offices, reflecting the significant public demand for the EEOC’s services.