The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is making good on its promise to crack down on discrimination practices in the workforce, according to the latest EEOC charge statistics.

In fiscal year 2013, the EEOC collected a record $372.1 million—the highest amount in the agency's history. This amount represents a $6.7 million increase from fiscal year 2012.

The record amount of monetary recoveries comes at a time when the number of charges of discrimination has declined, signaling higher overall settlement amounts. In 2013, the EEOC received 93,727 charges of discrimination, which is a 5.7 percent decrease from the 99,412 charges received in fiscal year 2012.

As in previous years, retaliation was the most common complaint, with 38,539 charges of discrimination brought in 2013, making up the plurality (41.1 percent) of all charges brought under statutes enforced by the EEOC. “While the total number of incidents of workplace discrimination are declining as companies get smarter regarding policy management and education, the allegations of retaliation continue to rise,” says Luis Ramos, chief executive officer of The Network, a provider of governance, risk, and compliance solutions. “Moreover, punishment is harsher than ever for organizations that fail to comply with EEOC rules.”

“Compliance officers should focus their efforts on creating a speak-up culture, where retaliation is not tolerated and on providing better awareness and training programs for supervisory personnel,” Ramos adds. “These programs not only protect the company in the event of an incident, but also drive more ethical employee behavior, making incidents less likely in the first place."

Aside from retaliation, other common charges of discrimination included race discrimination (35.3 percent); sex discrimination (29.5 percent), including sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination; and discrimination based on disability (27.7 percent).

New in the 2013 data, the EEOC included a “basis by issue” table, breaking down the specific discriminatory actions that were alleged to be in violation of the different sections of laws enforced by the EEOC. This new data expands on the “statute by issue" table first released in 2012.

For example, users of the data can now drill beyond allegations of hiring discrimination under Title VII, shown in the “statute by issue” table to discover how many of those hiring allegations were due to race, sex, national origin, and more. The most frequently cited issue under all statutes was discharge, followed by terms and conditions of employment, and harassment.

Meritorious Cases

In 2013, the EEOC filed 131 merits lawsuits alleging discrimination, 78 cases of which were lawsuits filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and 51 of which were filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. D

For the fourth year in a row, the EEOC resolved more charges of discrimination than it took in, resolving 209 merits lawsuits, resulting in $39 million in monetary benefits to victims of discrimination, plus wide-ranging injunctive relief.

The EEOC was able to resolve these even at a time when the agency furloughed its entire workforce for 40 hours, issued a hiring freeze, and “reduced its budget for litigation, information technology, travel and contracts for services, among other things,” the EEOC stated.

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