The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission


Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) Charges
FY 1997 - FY 2007

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

Receipts include all charges filed under the ADEA as well as those filed concurrently under Title VII, ADA, 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 15,785 15,191 14,141 16,008 17,405 19,921 19,124 17,837 16,585 16,548 19,103
Resolutions 18,279 15,995 15,448 14,672 15,155 18,673 17,352 15,792 14,076 14,146 16,134
Resolutions By Type                      
Settlements 642 755 816 1,156 1,006 1,222 1,285 1,377 1,326 1,417 1,795
  3.5%
 
4.7%
 
5.3%
 
7.9% 6.6% 6.5% 7.4% 8.7% 9.4% 10.0% 11.1%
Withdrawals w/Benefits 762 580 578 560 551 671 710 787 764 767 958
  4.2%
 
3.6%
 
3.7%
 
3.8% 3.6% 3.6% 4.1% 5.0% 5.4% 5.4% 5.9%
Administrative Closures 4,986 4,175 3,601 3,232 3,963 6,254 2,824 3,550 2,537 2,639 2,754
  27.3%
 
26.1%
 
23.3%
 
22.0% 26.1% 33.5% 16.3% 22.5% 18.0% 18.7% 17.1%
No Reasonable Cause 11,163 9,863 9,172 8,517 8,388 9,725 11,976 9,563 8,866 8,746 10,002
  61.1%
 
61.7%
 
59.4%
 
58.0% 55.3% 52.1% 69.0% 60.6% 63.0% 61.8% 62.0%
Reasonable Cause 726 622 1,281 1,207 1,247 801 557 515 583 612 625
  4.0%
 
3.9%
 
8.3%
 
8.2% 8.2% 4.3% 3.2% 3.3% 4.1% 4.3% 3.9%
Successful Conciliations 74 119 184 241 409 208 166 139 169 177 186
  0.4%
 
0.7%
 
1.2%
 
1.6% 2.7% 1.1% 1.0% 0.9% 1.2% 1.3% 1.2%
Unsuccessful Conciliations 652 503 1,097 966 838 593 391 376 414 435 439
  3.6%
 
3.1%
 
7.1%
 
6.6% 5.5% 3.2% 2.3% 2.4% 2.9% 3.1% 2.7%
Merit Resolutions 2,130 1,957 2,675 2,923 2,804 2,694 2,552 2,679 2,673 2,796 3,378
  11.7%
 
12.2%
 
17.3%
 
19.9% 18.5% 14.4% 14.7% 17.0% 19.0% 19.8% 20.9%
Monetary Benefits (Millions)* $44.3 $34.7 $38.6 $45.2 $53.7 $55.7 $48.9 $69.0 $77.7 $51.5 $66.8

* 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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