Charts of EEOC Charges by Type of Discrimination 1997-2011

The EEOC released charge statistics for FY 2011 today. I'll be honest... nothing too earth-shattering here. But, I noticed a few things:

• Total charges leveled off, creeping up from 99,922 to 99,947 (or as the media might report it... "EEOC charges set all-time record!");
• The heavy-hitters, race and sex, actually saw decreases;
• Religion claims are up almost 10% (after rising about 12% last year);
• Disability claims are still rising (and have been the fastest growing over the past 5 years), but they leveled off a little bit this year;
• Finally, I ignored GINA again this year because there were only 245 claims (or as the media might report it... "GINA claims skyrocket, up 22%, a new record!").

OK, enough of my babbling, here are the charts:

Retaliation claims continue to rise and comprise a higher percentage of total claims:

And there you have it folks, another record year.

Posted by Philip Miles, an attorney with McQuaide Blasko in State College, Pennsylvania in the firm's civil litigation and labor and employment law practice groups.