Are your discrimination claims going up? You need a HR partner. Here’s why.


USA Today recently ran an informative article, based on recently release EEOC data, on why your discrimination claims are going up. Understanding the effects of recent market and discrimination law changes will help you better prepare for what’s ahead for you.

Contributing Factors to more claims:

  1. Changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act last year made it easier for people with treatable conditions to say they are disabled (epilepsy, diabetes, etc.) Legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush before he left office directs courts to apply the definition of disability more generously.
  2. We have a more diverse workplace with people from all over the world and made up of many races.
  3. The economic environment seems to be contributing to employees being more aware of their rights.
  4. Changes at the EEOC filing processes (and EEOC website) have been made it easier for an employees to learn about their rights and to file discrimination charges.


In part because of these changes last year…

  1. There was a record number of job discrimination claims based on disability, religion or national origin last year. 93,000 discrimination claims were filed during the 2009 fiscal year, a 2% decrease from the record set in 2008, but still the second-highest level in the commission's history.
  2. Charges of discrimination based on national origin rose about 5% to 11,134 claims
  3. Allegations of race discrimination remained the most frequently filed complaint, accounting for about 36% of all filings last year.
  4. Religious discrimination claims rose less than 1%, to 3,386 claims.
  5. The largest increase in any category was a rise of about 10% to 21,451 claims, for disability discrimination.

It is a lengthy and tedious process for companies to actively deal with EEOC compliance paperwork, and many details can often be overlooked until it is too late. To help businesses keep up with their paperwork and discrimination law, there are a growing number of professional employee companies that manage these kinds of HR and EEOC issues for their clients.

Modern Business Associates deals with these kinds of issues on a frequent basis. As a Professional Employee Organization, our clients rely on us to help them effectively deal with these kinds of issues.