News flash: Record snows in Connecticut! 

Second news flash: Record numbers of people are out of work and filing complaints of discrimination at the EEOC nationwide!

Here’s the thing with both news flashes: They’re not entirely unexpected.  Sure, they’re in higher amounts than we’re accustomed to seeing, but both can be explained. (I’ll leave it to the weather forecasters to take the snow angle.) 

I’ve previously discussed trends in EEOC charges and I don’t see much in these new numbers that changes that trend.

  • Retaliation claims are up significantly and have now surpassed race discrimination as the most-filed type of complaint.   
  • Nearly 100,000 complaints were filed by people, but the EEOC filed 250 lawsuits, resolved 285 lawsuits, and resolved 104,999 private sector charges.  On other words, the EEOC has seen fit to pursue a lawsuit in just around .25 percent of the complaints filed.
  • The EEOC is continuing its investigations of systematic discrimination charges and currently has 465 pending nationwide.

Connecticut hasn’t really seen this same spike as exists nationally.  Indeed, the latest CHRO Times shows that while the CHRO remains active, it is far from the peak levels that occurred a few years back.

As I reported back in September, claims of discrimination were fairly constant from last year’s levels.