EEOC Sets New Enforcement Priorities: Why Employers Should Take Note

Jeremy Farrell, Esq., jfarrell@tuckerlaw.com, (412) 594-3938

Earlier last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued its new National Enforcement Plan (“NEP”). The NEP is a helpful document, as it essentially serves as a roadmap that will guide the agency’s enforcement efforts through 2029.

Why should employers take note? In short, the NEP explains what types of complaints the EEOC is going to target over the next few years. By publicly disseminating the NEP, the EEOC is giving all employers a “sneak peek” about what sorts of cases are most likely to get an investigator’s attention.

The EEOC is a federal executive agency, meaning that it sits under the White House’s jurisdiction. Not surprisingly then, many of the EEOC’s priorities mirror those of President Trump.

Below is a summary of some of the key issues the EEOC intends to prioritize:

• Remedying DEI-related race and sex discrimination
• Protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination
• Defending women’s rights to single-sex spaces at work and, relatedly, worker’s workers’ rights to express the binary nature of sex
• Protecting employees’ right to be free of religious discrimination and to receive religious accommodations absent undue hardship
• Protections for employees under the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act

Beyond those specific areas, the EEOC highlighted certain additional risk factors that may subject a particular policy or practice to increased investigative scrutiny. They include:

• Cases involving “repeated or overt discrimination,” such as job advertisements that discourage certain individuals from applying or steering individuals into specific jobs or job duties based on protected characteristics. These priorities offer fertile ground for the EEOC to explore in connection with AI-driven screening and interviewing practices.
• Cases that implicate recent decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States. One of the cases specifically referenced is Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, in which the Court held that employees can challenge employment decisions that cause “some harm” (as opposed to “significant harm”) to a term or condition of employment. This means that the EEOC may pay increased attention to charges that challenge intermediate disciplinary or performance management measures—such as performance improvement plans, written warnings, performance reviews, schedule changes, and so on.
• Cases involving vulnerable workers, such as teenage workers, persons with limited literacy or education, individuals working in low-wage jobs, survivors of sexual assault, and workers with developmental or intellectual disabilities.

The NEP gives employers an advance opportunity to review policies or practices that might get the special attention of the EEOC and take proactive steps to minimize their risk. If you have questions about how the NEP might impact your business, please contact Jeremy Farrell at jfarrell@tuckerlaw.com or (412) 594-3938.