How to File an EEOC Charge of Discrimination: Deadlines and Next Steps

To file an EEOC charge of discrimination, submit an inquiry through the EEOC Public Portal, by mail, or in person at a field office, then complete an intake interview and sign Form 5 — the official Charge of Discrimination — within 180 days of the discriminatory act (or 300 days if a state or local anti-discrimination agency also covers the conduct).¹ The charge is a signed, sworn statement that your employer violated federal anti-discrimination law, and filing it is a required step before you can sue under most of those laws.

Start With the Deadline

You have 180 calendar days from the date of the discriminatory act to file. That window extends to 300 calendar days if a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting the same type of discrimination.² Most states have a fair employment agency, so the 300-day deadline applies more often than people expect. Don’t assume it applies to you without confirming your state has one.

The clock starts when the discrimination happened, not when you realized it was illegal. For a firing, that’s the day you were fired. For a denied promotion, it’s the day the decision was made or communicated. For harassment, the deadline runs from the last incident, which can give you more room if the behavior was ongoing.²

If you experienced a pattern of discriminatory conduct stretching over months or years, the continuing violation doctrine may let you include older incidents in your charge as long as they connect to actions inside the filing window.³ Isolated incidents with long gaps and no connecting thread usually won’t qualify.

Missing the deadline almost always kills the claim. Courts routinely dismiss otherwise valid cases because the charge was a week late. When you file with either the EEOC or a state fair employment agency, worksharing agreements dual-file the charge automatically, so a single submission preserves both federal and state rights.⁴

Confirm the Law Covers Your Situation

The EEOC enforces several statutes, each with its own coverage. Title VII (race, color, religion, sex, national origin), the ADA (disability), and GINA (genetic information) apply to employers with 15 or more employees who worked at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or prior year.⁵ The ADEA (age) requires at least 20 employees.⁶ After the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Title VII’s sex discrimination protection also covers sexual orientation and gender identity.

Independent contractors are not covered. If you’re unsure whether you count as an employee or a contractor, the EEOC recommends contacting a field office to help sort that out.⁷

One important carveout: the Equal Pay Act does not require an EEOC charge before you sue. You can go straight to court within two years of the last discriminatory paycheck (three if the violation was willful).² Because sex-based pay discrimination also violates Title VII, many people file both. A Title VII charge does not pause the EPA lawsuit deadline.

Gather Your Information Before You Start

You’ll need the employer’s full legal name as it appears on your pay stubs or W-2, the employer’s address, and an approximate headcount to establish the size threshold.

Build a chronological log of every incident: dates, times, locations, what was said or done, who was involved, and who witnessed it. This timeline is the backbone of your charge. If coworkers in similar positions were treated differently (sometimes called “comparators”), note them. The contrast between how you were treated and how someone outside your protected group was treated is often the strongest evidence.

Collect the documents you can: performance evaluations, emails, text messages, termination letters, disciplinary write-ups, internal memos. Preserve digital evidence — texts, Slack or Teams messages, voicemails, relevant social posts. Screenshots help, but keeping the originals is better because the metadata carries timestamps and sender information. Save what you can legally access while you still have access. Once you’re separated from the company, your view of the internal records disappears.

How to File Your Charge

The EEOC accepts charges three ways: through the online Public Portal, by mail, and in person at a field office. Online, you start by submitting an inquiry, and the EEOC then schedules an intake interview.¹ The interview leads to preparation of Form 5, the official Charge of Discrimination.⁸

On Form 5, you select the basis for your claim (race, sex, disability, age, and so on) and write a statement of particulars explaining what happened. Keep the statement concise and factual: who did what, when, and how it affected your employment. You sign under penalty of perjury, attesting that everything is true to the best of your knowledge.⁸ The charge is not considered filed until the EEOC receives a signed and verified document.

Mailing it? Send to the field office with jurisdiction over your employer’s location, and use certified mail with return receipt so you can prove the delivery date. Filing in person usually requires an appointment.

What Happens After You File

Within 10 days of receiving your charge, the EEOC notifies your employer of the allegations.⁹ From there, the case typically goes to mediation, investigation, or early resolution.

Mediation

Many charges are referred to the EEOC’s mediation program first. Mediation is voluntary for both sides — if either party declines, the charge moves to investigation.¹⁰ A mediator helps both sides explore a resolution but has no authority to impose one. Sessions typically last three to four hours, and everything said is confidential. Mediated cases historically resolve in roughly 97 days, compared with over 200 days for cases that go through the full investigation.

Investigation

If mediation doesn’t happen or doesn’t work, the EEOC investigates: interviewing witnesses, requesting internal documents from HR, and reviewing evidence from both sides. The agency has subpoena power and can compel records or testimony.¹¹

The investigation ends one of two ways. If the EEOC finds insufficient evidence, it issues a Dismissal and Notice of Rights, giving you 90 days to sue in federal court.¹² A dismissal does not mean the claim lacks merit; it means the EEOC could not establish reasonable cause with the evidence it gathered. Many successful discrimination lawsuits begin after an EEOC dismissal.

If the EEOC finds reasonable cause, it issues a Letter of Determination and invites both sides into conciliation, which is a structured settlement negotiation.¹² If conciliation fails, the EEOC decides whether to sue on your behalf. The agency does not litigate every case — it weighs the nature of the violation, the legal issues, and the broader impact.¹³ If the EEOC declines to sue, you receive a right-to-sue letter and have 90 days to file on your own.

Requesting an Early Right-to-Sue Letter

If you’d rather skip the investigation and go straight to court, you can request a Notice of Right to Sue through the Public Portal or in writing to the office handling your charge. After 180 days from filing, the EEOC must issue the notice on request. Before 180 days, the agency will grant it only if it determines the investigation won’t finish within that time.¹⁴ Requesting the letter ends the EEOC’s investigation, so don’t ask for it if you want the agency’s help.

The 90-Day Lawsuit Deadline

Once you receive a Dismissal and Notice of Rights or a right-to-sue letter, you have exactly 90 days to file a lawsuit in federal court.¹² This is the deadline people most commonly blow, and it’s unforgiving. Cases filed on day 91 get dismissed. The clock starts when you receive the notice, not when it was mailed, but proving the receipt date can itself become a dispute. Open your mail promptly and write down the date the letter arrives. Start looking for an attorney well before the EEOC finishes its process so you’re not scrambling.

Retaliation After You File

Federal law prohibits your employer from punishing you for filing a charge, participating in an EEOC investigation, or opposing practices you reasonably believe are discriminatory.¹⁵ Retaliation covers any action that would discourage a reasonable person from exercising their rights: firing, demotion, suspension, but also subtler moves like reassignment to undesirable shifts or unjustified negative evaluations.

You’re protected even if the underlying discrimination claim turns out to be wrong, as long as you had a reasonable good-faith belief that what you opposed was illegal. Coworkers who serve as witnesses or provide information are also protected.¹⁵ If retaliation happens after you file, you can file a separate charge for it. Retaliation is the most frequently filed charge type at the EEOC, and these claims can succeed even when the original discrimination claim doesn’t.

What You Can Recover

The goal of discrimination remedies is to put you in the position you would have been in if the discrimination never happened.¹⁶ Recovery falls into a few categories.

Back pay covers wages and benefits lost because of the discrimination: salary, overtime, bonuses, health insurance contributions, retirement contributions, leave accrual. Under Title VII, back pay reaches back at most two years before the date you filed your charge. You have a duty to mitigate by making a reasonable effort to find comparable work; wages from a new job reduce the back pay total, but unemployment benefits do not.¹⁷

Front pay compensates for future lost earnings when reinstatement isn’t feasible, and reinstatement itself is a potential remedy when circumstances allow it.¹⁹

15–100 employees: $50,000
101–200 employees: $100,000
201–500 employees: $200,000
More than 500 employees: $300,000

The caps do not apply to back pay or front pay, which are calculated separately. Under the ADEA, compensatory and punitive damages are not available, but you can receive liquidated damages (double back pay) if the employer’s violation was willful — meaning the employer knew or recklessly disregarded that its conduct was illegal.²⁰

Attorney’s fees are also recoverable. Courts can award reasonable attorney’s fees, including expert witness fees, to the prevailing party in a Title VII case.²¹ That provision is why many employment attorneys take discrimination cases on contingency.

Federal Employees Follow a Different Process

If you work for the federal government, this process does not apply to you. You must contact an EEO Counselor at your agency within 45 days of the discriminatory act, then, after counseling or an alternative dispute resolution session, file a formal complaint with your agency’s EEO office within 15 days of receiving the counselor’s notice.²² The agency then has 180 days to investigate, after which you can request a hearing before an EEOC Administrative Judge (within 30 days of the notice of rights) or ask the agency itself to issue a decision. The 45-day counselor deadline is much shorter than the 180 or 300 days private-sector workers get, and it catches many federal employees off guard.

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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Charge of Discrimination
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits For Filing A Charge
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The DIGEST Of Equal Employment Opportunity Law
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. State and Local Programs
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Who is an Employee Under Federal Employment Discrimination Laws
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC Compliance Manual Section 2 Threshold Issues
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Coverage
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC Form 5 – Charge of Discrimination
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Can Expect After You File a Charge
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Questions And Answers About Mediation
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Directed Investigations
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Can Expect After a Charge is Filed
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC Litigation
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Remedies For Employment Discrimination
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Chapter 11 REMEDIES
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Chapter 11 REMEDIES
Compensatory and punitive damages are available in cases of intentional discrimination under Title VII, the ADA, and GINA. Compensatory damages cover emotional distress and similar noneconomic harm; punitive damages penalize employers who acted with malice or reckless indifference. Federal law caps the combined total based on employer size:18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment
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Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 11.14 Age Discrimination – Damages – Willful Discrimination – Liquidated Damages
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 2000e-5 – Enforcement Provisions
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Overview Of Federal Sector EEO Complaint Process