EEOC Complaint Time Limit: 180, 300, and 90-Day Deadlines

The EEOC complaint time limit is 180 calendar days from the date the discrimination occurred, extended to 300 calendar days if a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting the same type of discrimination. Because most states have such an agency, the 300-day window applies to the majority of workers. Miss the deadline and, in almost every case, the claim is gone.¹

Which Deadline Applies to You

The 180-day baseline covers claims under Title VII (race, color, religion, sex, national origin), the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. It applies only where no state or local Fair Employment Practices Agency enforces a parallel anti-discrimination law.¹

Where such an agency exists, the deadline stretches to 300 days. The EEOC and most state agencies have worksharing agreements that treat a charge filed with one as filed with the other, so you generally do not need to file twice to protect your rights under both laws.²

Weekends and holidays count toward the total. If the last day happens to be a weekend or holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day.¹

Age Claims Follow a Stricter Extension Rule

For age discrimination under the ADEA, the 300-day extension applies only if the state itself has a law prohibiting age discrimination in employment and a state agency that enforces it. A local ordinance alone will not extend your time.¹

When the Clock Starts

The filing period begins on the date the discriminatory act took place. Pinpointing that date depends on what kind of conduct is at issue.¹

Discrete Acts Like Firing or Demotion

A termination, demotion, refusal to hire, or denial of a promotion is a single event with an identifiable date. The clock starts the day the employer makes and communicates the decision. Each discrete act carries its own deadline. If you were demoted a year before you were fired and believe both were discriminatory, filing a timely charge about the firing does not revive the demotion claim if its 180 or 300 days have already run.¹

Ongoing Harassment

Hostile work environment claims work differently. The violation is the cumulative pattern, not any single incident, so a charge is timely as long as at least one incident happened within the filing window. When that condition is met, the EEOC can consider the entire pattern, including earlier incidents that would otherwise be time-barred.¹

Pay Discrimination Resets With Each Paycheck

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 treats each paycheck affected by a discriminatory compensation decision as a fresh violation. A new charge period begins when the employer adopts the practice, when you become subject to it, or when you receive wages based on it. An old pay decision does not become untouchable simply because it was made years ago, so long as tainted paychecks are still arriving.³ Back pay recovery, however, is capped at the two years before the charge was filed.⁴

Is Your Employer Even Covered?

Federal anti-discrimination laws only reach employers above certain size thresholds, measured by employees on the payroll for at least twenty calendar weeks in the current or prior year:

15 or more employees for Title VII, the ADA, and GINA.
20 or more employees for the ADEA.
Virtually all employers for the Equal Pay Act.

If the employer falls below the relevant threshold, the EEOC cannot take your charge under that law. State law may still cover you, since many states set lower employee minimums or none at all.⁵

When the Deadline Can Be Extended

Courts sometimes extend the filing period through equitable tolling. It is not a fallback to plan around; it requires circumstances that genuinely prevented a timely filing. The EEOC identifies several situations where tolling may apply:

You had no reason to suspect the employer’s action was discriminatory when it happened.
A mental incapacity prevented you from pursuing legal remedies during the filing period.
The EEOC or a state agency gave you misleading information or mishandled your charge.
You timely filed with the wrong agency while diligently trying to assert your rights.

A related doctrine, equitable estoppel, applies when the employer’s own conduct caused the delay. It can reach concealment of facts supporting a charge, threats of retaliation aimed at discouraging filing, promises not to raise the deadline as a defense, or assurances that an internal grievance process would resolve the issue.⁶

Courts apply both doctrines narrowly and case by case. Treat them as a last resort, not a reason to wait.

Federal Employees Have Only 45 Days

Federal government employees do not file a Charge of Discrimination with the EEOC. You contact an EEO Counselor at your own agency, and you generally must do so within 45 days of the discriminatory event. If counseling and any alternative dispute resolution do not resolve the matter, you have 15 days from receiving notice from the counselor to file a formal complaint with your agency’s EEO office.⁷

Equal Pay Act Claims Skip the EEOC

Unequal pay for substantially equal work does not require an EEOC charge. Under the Equal Pay Act, you can go directly to court within two years of the last discriminatory paycheck, or three years if the violation was willful. If the same pay disparity also amounts to sex discrimination under Title VII, an EEOC charge is still needed to pursue that theory, and filing it does not extend the EPA lawsuit deadline.¹

How to File in Time

You meet the deadline by getting a charge to the EEOC or a state or local FEPA within the window. There are three ways to file:

Online through the EEOC Public Portal, which walks you through an inquiry, an interview with EEOC staff, and electronic signature of the charge.
In person at any EEOC field office.
By mail, with a signed letter describing the discrimination, your contact information, the employer’s information, and the facts of what happened.

A charge is a signed statement asserting unlawful employment discrimination. A mailed letter must be signed or the EEOC cannot investigate.²

If you are running up against the deadline, the online inquiry matters. Submitting an inquiry through the Public Portal can preserve your filing date even before the formal charge is finalized. EEOC staff then interview you and prepare the charge document you review and sign, but the clock stopped when the inquiry went in.²

A Second Clock: 90 Days to Sue

Filing on time with the EEOC is not the only deadline in the process. When the EEOC closes its investigation, declines to sue, or issues a Notice of Right to Sue at your request, you have exactly 90 days from receiving that notice to file a lawsuit in federal court. Missing that window generally ends the case.⁸

You are not stuck waiting on the agency forever. After 180 days, you can generally request a right-to-sue letter and move to court on your own timeline.⁹

1
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits For Filing A Charge
2
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination
3
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Notice Concerning the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
5
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Coverage of Business/Private Employers
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Section 2 Threshold Issues
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Overview Of Federal Sector EEO Complaint Process
8
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. After You Have Filed a Charge