The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the U.S. Federal Government agency that investigates and enforces employment discrimination laws involving age, race, sex, religion, and disability.
The Huffington Post reported that the EEOC received just under 100,000 employment discrimination complaints during the 2011 fiscal year, “the most logged in a single year in the agency’s 46-year history.” A spokeswoman for the EEOC said that they are not sure and have not conducted any studies as to why the charges have increased, but experts in the field say that the failing economy is to blame.
The executive director of the National Employment Law Project, Christine Owens, made a statement to HuffPost saying, “At times like this, when job loss makes workers especially vulnerable, employers bent on breaking the law are even more likely to do so. The strong report the EEOC has released…underscores how critical it is for America’s workers that we maintain robust laws and regulations to ensure protection of basic labor standards.”
