Many employees in Kansas and Missouri have or are currently enduring a form of employee discrimination. Since employment discrimination can occur in a multitude of scenarios and is covered by several categories of discrimination, many employees are not familiar with their employment rights. A common avenue for employees to challenge a potential employment decimation scenario is through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — most commonly referred to as the EEOC — recently released its 2012 Fiscal Year statistics. The statistics represent how many discrimination claims were filed and also breaks down the statistics into each category of discrimination. It was reported that in Fiscal Year 2012, approximately 94,412 employee discrimination claims were filed by private sector employees.
From the 94,412 claims, the EEOC was able to obtain an estimated $365 million in damages for the employees who filed discrimination claims. Within those statistics, it was reported that 37,836 claims were filed for employee retaliation, 33,512 claims were filed over race discrimination and 30,356 claims were filed for sex discrimination. In addition to the statics related to the amount of awarded damages and filed complaints, the EEOC also completed 240 investigations about potential employee discrimination claims.
After an employee has experienced a potential employee discrimination situation, many employees are unaware of their rights or if the situation even rises to a level of discrimination. Filing a complaint with the EEOC is a potential avenue of recourse for an employee, but discussing the situation with an experienced attorney can provide the employee with a better understanding of their rights and methods of recovery.
Source: The Examiner, “EEOC reports nearly 100000 workplace discrimination charges for fiscal year 2012,” Thomas Ahearn, Feb. 6 2013