The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission


Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Charges
FY 1997 - FY 2007

The following chart represents the total number of charge receipts filed and resolved under Title VII.

Receipts include all charges filed under Title VII as well as those filed concurrently under the ADA, ADEA, and/or EPA. Therefore, the sum of receipts for all statutes will exceed total charges received.

The data are compiled by the Office of Research, Information and Planning from data reported via the quarterly reconciled Data Summary Reports and compiled from EEOC's Charge Data System and, from FY 2004 forward, EEOC's Integrated Mission System.

  FY 1997 FY 1998 FY 1999 FY 2000 FY 2001 FY 2002 FY 2003 FY 2004 FY 2005 FY 2006 FY 2007
Receipts 58,615 58,124 57,582 59,588 59,631 61,459 59,075 58,328 55,976 56,155 61,159
Resolutions 62,533 60,888 59,085 57,136 54,549 56,392 52,227 51,355 46,885 44,228 53,631
Resolutions By Type                      
Settlements 2,272 2,657 3,748 4,828 4,493 5,362 5,215 5,365 4,991 5,165 6,423
  3.6% 4.4% 6.3% 8.5% 8.2% 9.5% 10.0% 10.4% 10.6% 11.7% 12.0%
Withdrawals w/Benefits 1,924 1,767 2,084 2,251 2,201 2,188 2,188 2,151 2,405 2,373 2,907
  3.1% 2.9% 3.5% 3.9% 4.0% 3.9% 4.2% 4.2% 5.1% 5.4% 5.4%
Administrative Closures 17,405 16,114 14,265 11,439 10,766 9,791 9,225 8,563 7,255 7,143 9,475
  27.8% 26.5% 24.1% 20.0% 19.7% 17.4% 17.7% 16.7% 15.5% 16.2% 17.7%
No Reasonable Cause 38,731 37,792 35,614 33,822 32,075 34,671 32,418 32,646 29,344 27,178 32,123
  61.9% 62.1% 60.3% 59.2% 58.8% 61.5% 62.1% 63.6% 62.6% 61.4% 59.9%
Reasonable Cause 2,201 2,558 3,374 4,796 5,014 4,380 3,181 2,630 2,890 2,426 2,703
  3.5% 4.2% 5.7% 8.4% 9.2% 7.8% 6.1% 5.1% 6.2% 5.5% 5.0%
Successful Conciliations 568 671 859 1,091 1,177 1,060 747 697 788 618 840
  0.9% 1.1% 1.5% 1.9% 2.2% 1.9% 1.4% 1.4% 1.7% 1.4% 1.6%
Unsuccessful Conciliations 1,633 1,887 2,515 3,705 3,837 3,320 2,434 1,933 2,102 1,808 1,863
  2.6% 3.1% 4.3% 6.5% 7.0% 5.9% 4.7% 3.8% 4.5% 4.1% 3.5%
Merit Resolutions 6,397 6,982 9,206 11,875 11,708 11,930 10,584 10,146 10,286 9,964 12,033
  10.2% 11.5% 15.6% 20.8% 21.5% 21.2% 20.3% 19.8% 21.9% 22.5% 22.4%
Monetary Benefits (Millions)* $88.7 $78.0 $113.1 $142.4 $141.1 $141.7 $138.7 $128.6 $146.0 $126.5 $220.0

* Does not include monetary benefits obtained through litigation.

The total of individual percentages may not always sum to 100% due to rounding.

EEOC total workload includes charges carried over from previous fiscal years, new charge receipts and charges transferred to EEOC from Fair Employment Practice Agencies (FEPAs). Resolution of charges each year may therefore exceed receipts for that year because workload being resolved is drawn from a combination of pending, new receipts and FEPA transfer charges rather than from new charges only.

Definitions of Terms

Historical Data


This page was last modified on February 26, 2008.

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