EEOC Harassment Charges Reflect #MeToo’s Relevance

Interesting article from SHRM on post- #MeToo statistics at EEOC for sexual harassment charges.

On the one hand, there still has not been a flood of sexual harassment charges. In fact, their number remains lower than pre- #MeToo 2010-13 numbers but are slowly climbing back from their post- #MeToo 2014-17 dips.

The number of sexual-harassment charges filed with the EEOC dipped slightly in fiscal year 2019 from 2018 levels but remained much higher than in the immediately preceding years:

• 2014—6,862
• 2015—6,822
• 2016—6,758
• 2017—6,696
• 2018—7,609
• 2019 —7,514

The number of sexual harassment charges were at a high level before that, though they dropped from the beginning of the 2010s:

• 2010—7,944
• 2011—7,809
• 2012—7,571
• 2013—7,256

One has to wonder if these numbers aren’t the product of the the country becoming more educated on Title VII’s sexual harassment legal requirements; in other words, understanding what the law does and does not prohibit, fewer unsupported claims are being filed. Indeed, the EEOC’s recent statistics do suggest that the charges, which are being filed post- #MeToo, may be, by and large, the stronger claims, at least in the sense that they are producing higher dollar-amount settlements.

The monetary benefits from the agency’s sexual-harassment settlements have steadily risen over the past four years:

• 2016—$40.7 million
• 2017—$46.3 million
• 2018—$56.6 million
• 2019—$68.2 million

Source: “EEOC Harassment Charges Reflect #MeToo’s Relevance,” A. Smith, J.D. (1/24/2020), available here, www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/Pages/EEOC-harassment-charges-MeToo.aspx