EEOC has issued its 2014 Performance Report and the big news everyone announced was that the number of charges dropped. What I found disturbing when I read the summary was that there were 88,778 charges filed nationwide, and of those EEOC only filed 133 “merit” suits, that is, suits where they found cause and decided to sue on behalf of an individual or group of employees.
So the odds of having EEOC sue on your behalf are .1% (133/88778=.001), or about 1 in 1000. Now, when I’m telling clients that they shouldn’t hold their breath and hope for EEOC to file suit on their behalf, I usually say that the odds are about the same as getting struck by lightning, and I laugh. I thought I was being facetious. So I looked it up.
The odds of getting struck by lightning in your lifetime are about 1/3000. So you’re about three times as likely to have EEOC file a suit on your behalf as you are to be struck by lightning. Not great odds.
