Rare Commissioner-Initiated Bias Probes Spiked at EEOC in 2023

Commissioners at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a total of 35 of their own charges in fiscal year 2023, a notable leap from 21 the previous year and the three filed in both 2021 and 2020.

Commissioner charges, unlike traditional EEOC complaints, are targeted investigations of employers that can be launched by any of the agency’s five commissioners and allow them to probe for discrimination at companies without waiting for a charge from a worker to initiate the process. Commissioner charges are confidential and the initiator doesn’t need to inform their colleagues of the charge.

The exponential rise in ...