What Does the EEOC Do? Coverage, Filing, and Remedies

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency that enforces the country’s workplace anti-discrimination laws. In practical terms, what the EEOC does is take charges from workers who believe they’ve been discriminated against, investigate those charges, try to settle them through mediation or conciliation, and, in a small share of cases, sue the employer in federal court.¹ For most workers, the EEOC is the required first stop before any federal discrimination lawsuit, and the deadline to reach it can be as short as 180 days.

What the EEOC Actually Does

The agency has four main functions that matter to a worker with a complaint.

It receives and processes charges. A charge is the formal complaint that starts the process, and the EEOC accepts them online through its Public Portal, by mail, and in person at field offices.² You do not need a lawyer to file one.

It investigates. Once a charge is filed, an EEOC investigator reviews documents, interviews witnesses, and can request personnel files and internal policies to compare how different employees were treated. Investigations take about 10 months on average.³

It tries to resolve cases without a trial. Early on, the agency may offer mediation, a voluntary and confidential session with a neutral mediator; most mediations wrap up in a single sitting and, when both sides participate, the EEOC reports cases usually resolve in under three months.⁴ If the investigation later finds reasonable cause, the agency attempts conciliation, which is essentially a settlement negotiation between the employer and the EEOC.

It litigates, but rarely. When conciliation fails, the EEOC can sue the employer in federal court and act as the plaintiff on behalf of the public interest. In practice, the agency files suit in fewer than 8 percent of cases where it finds discrimination occurred and conciliation failed.⁵ For everyone else, the agency issues a Notice of Right to Sue, which lets the worker take the case to federal court on their own.

Which Workplaces the EEOC Covers

The agency’s authority generally starts at 15 employees for most laws it enforces, and at 20 employees for age discrimination claims. The thresholds apply to employers who had that many workers for at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or preceding year.⁶ State and local governments and educational institutions are covered as well.¹

A few boundaries are worth knowing before you file:

Very small employers below those headcounts generally aren’t covered by the federal laws the EEOC enforces, though state law may still protect you.
Independent contractors aren’t covered. Whether you’re actually an employee depends on economic reality, not on labels, 1099 forms, or the wording of a contract. Factors include who controls your schedule, whether you can profit from your own decisions, how permanent the relationship is, and whether your work is central to what the company does.
Religious organizations can prefer to hire people who share their religion for work connected to the organization’s activities. That carve-out is limited to religion. A religious employer still cannot discriminate on race, sex, national origin, disability, or any other protected trait.⁷
Federal employees follow a completely separate process, described below.

The Discrimination the EEOC Handles

The agency draws its authority from several federal statutes, each covering a different form of workplace discrimination:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in any aspect of employment. The Supreme Court held in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) that “sex” discrimination under Title VII includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Title VII also requires reasonable accommodation of sincerely held religious beliefs unless doing so would impose a substantial burden on the business, the standard set by Groff v. DeJoy (2023).⁷⁸
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act treats pregnancy-based discrimination as sex discrimination, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, effective June 2023, requires reasonable accommodation for limitations related to pregnancy or childbirth.⁹
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires equal pay for substantially equal work regardless of sex, measured by job duties rather than titles, and covering salary, bonuses, stock options, and benefits.¹⁰
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers 40 and older at employers with 20 or more employees.¹
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits disability discrimination and requires reasonable accommodation unless doing so would create an undue hardship. Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act give similar protection to federal employees.¹¹¹²
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 forbids using genetic information, including a family member’s genetic tests and family medical history, in any employment decision.¹³

Every one of these statutes also forbids retaliation, and retaliation charges are the single most common type the EEOC receives. It is illegal for an employer to punish you for filing a charge, participating as a witness, or opposing conduct you reasonably believe is discriminatory. Punishment isn’t limited to firing or demotion; it can also mean suddenly assigning undesirable shifts, excluding you from meetings, or writing you up for things previously ignored.¹⁴

When You Have to File

Deadlines are where most people lose otherwise strong cases. The default rule is 180 calendar days from the discriminatory act to file a charge with the EEOC. That extends to 300 days if a state or local agency also enforces a discrimination law covering the same conduct, which is true in most states.¹⁵ For age discrimination, the 300-day extension only applies when a state law prohibits age discrimination and a state agency enforces it; a local ordinance alone won’t do it.

A few things about how the clock actually works:

Each discriminatory act has its own deadline. Being passed over for a promotion in January and demoted in June are two separate events with two separate clocks.
For ongoing harassment, the clock runs from the last incident, and the EEOC will consider earlier incidents as part of the same pattern even if they fall outside the deadline.
Internal grievances, union arbitration, and pre-filing mediation do not pause the clock.¹⁵
Equal Pay Act claims work differently. You have two years from the last discriminatory paycheck to file a charge or go straight to court, or three years if the violation was willful, and you don’t have to go through the EEOC first.¹⁰

How to File a Charge

The most common route is the EEOC Public Portal. You start with an online inquiry that walks you through initial questions to confirm the EEOC is the right agency. An EEOC staff member then prepares a formal charge from your information, and you review and electronically sign it through your portal account.¹⁶ You can also file by mail with a signed letter that includes your contact information, the employer’s name and address, the number of employees if you know it, and a description of what happened. Your signature is required. You can also file in person at a field office, where an intake officer can help you prepare the charge.²

Before you file, have the employer’s full legal name and address ready, along with the approximate employee count, which determines which laws apply and caps the damages you can recover. Write out what happened with specific dates, names, and what was said or done, and keep copies of supporting documents like emails, performance reviews, and termination letters.

Many states have their own Fair Employment Practices Agencies with worksharing agreements that automatically cross-file your charge, preserving your rights under both federal and state law. That matters when state law offers a longer filing window, covers smaller employers, or allows higher damages.¹⁷

What Happens After You File

Within 10 days of filing, the EEOC sends your employer a notice of the charge.³ From there, the case may go to mediation if both sides agree, or move directly to investigation. After investigation, one of three things typically happens: the agency finds no reasonable cause and issues a Notice of Right to Sue; it finds reasonable cause and tries conciliation; or, if conciliation fails, it either sues the employer itself or issues the right-to-sue notice so you can.

What You Can Recover

Remedies depend on the law violated and the employer’s size. Back pay covers wages lost to the discrimination, and front pay covers future lost earnings when reinstatement isn’t practical. Compensatory damages address out-of-pocket costs and emotional harm, and punitive damages punish employers who acted with malice or reckless disregard for your rights.¹⁸

Federal law caps the combined total of compensatory and punitive damages under Title VII and the ADA by employer size:⁶

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

The caps don’t apply to back pay or front pay, and they haven’t been adjusted for inflation since 1991. Compensatory and punitive damages aren’t available under the ADEA or Equal Pay Act, but workers can recover liquidated damages equal to their back pay when the employer’s violation was willful, effectively doubling the recovery.

Non-monetary relief matters too. Settlements and court orders regularly include reinstatement, changes to company policies, mandatory anti-discrimination training, external monitoring, workplace climate surveys, and disciplinary action against the person who discriminated.¹⁹

The Right to Sue and the 90-Day Clock

Because the EEOC litigates only a small fraction of cases, most workers who want their day in court get there through a Notice of Right to Sue. The agency issues one when it dismisses a charge, declines to sue on its own, or when 180 days have passed without action and you request it.²⁰

Once that notice is in your hands, you have 90 calendar days to file suit in federal court. Miss it and your federal claim is almost certainly gone regardless of how strong it was. That’s why many employment attorneys prefer to be consulted before a right-to-sue letter is requested or arrives, so the lawsuit is ready to go when the clock starts.

Federal Employees Follow a Different Process

If you work for a federal agency, none of the Public Portal filing described above applies to you. You have just 45 days from the discriminatory act to contact an EEO Counselor at your own agency. If counseling or alternative dispute resolution doesn’t resolve the matter, you file a formal complaint with the agency’s EEO office within 15 days of notice from your counselor. The agency has 180 days to investigate, after which you can request a hearing before an EEOC Administrative Judge or ask the agency to issue a decision. After the agency’s final order, you have 30 days to appeal to the EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations or file in federal district court.²¹ The 45-day counselor deadline at the start is the most common way federal employees lose claims before the case truly begins.

1
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The State of the EEOC: Frequently Asked Questions
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment 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. Mediation
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know: The EEOC, Conciliation, and Litigation
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fact Sheet: Religious Accommodations in the Workplace
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eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1636 – Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Equal Pay/Compensation Discrimination
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retaliation
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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. EEOC Public Portal
17
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. FY 2012 EEOC/FEPA Model Worksharing Agreement
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Remedies for Employment Discrimination
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Standards and Procedures for Settlement of EEOC Litigation
20
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 2000e-5 – Enforcement Provisions
21
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Overview of Federal Sector EEO Complaint Process