The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has just released its numbers involving private sector discrimination filings for 2007.  They’re up by 9%, the highest increase since 1993, as the EEOC received 82,792 filings.  Bias charges based on race continued to be the most frequent. Race has been the most common claim since the EEOC went into business in 1965.   Interestingly, for the first time, retaliation was the second most common charge and was at record levels.  Claims based on sex/gender moved to third.  The next most common, in order, were filings based on age, disability, national origin, and religion.

2007 saw a record number of pregnancy cases. Sexual harassment cases increased for the first time since 2000 and a record 16% of sexual harassment cases were filed by men.  Don’t forget that discrimination claims are also filed with state and local discrimination agencies as well.

Most likely we’ll see continued increases in cases in the future as our workforce continues to become more diverse, baby boomers want to work past typical retirement ages, the economy goes south and more workers are laid off, and plaintiffs lawyers become even more skilled at adding retaliation charges to discrimination claims.  The best advice remains prevention by implementing  sound HR practices and training.  And, should you ever be faced with even a possible discrimination claim don’t do anything that presents even the remotest appearance of retaliation.   Many companies win their discrimination cases only to lose retaliation charges.