Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed on July 2, 1964, banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which opened on July 2, 1965. At first it could only investigate and try to persuade employers, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 gave it the power to sue. It has five commissioners appointed to five-year terms, no more than three from one party, and a General Counsel who directs its litigation.

The EEOC enforces Title VII, the Equal Pay Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the employment parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2022. Workers at most private employers with 15 or more employees, as well as federal, state, and local governments, generally must file a charge with the EEOC before they can sue. The agency receives tens of thousands of charges a year, investigates and mediates them, issues guidance, and files lawsuits in selected cases. It also handles appeals of discrimination complaints by federal employees.

In January 2025 the President removed two Democratic commissioners before their terms ended, leaving the Commission without a quorum for months. The agency shifted its priorities toward challenging diversity programs it viewed as discriminatory and toward religious and anti-American bias claims, and it stopped pursuing most cases on behalf of transgender workers. Supporters said the changes enforced the law as written and protected all workers equally, while civil rights groups said they abandoned protections the Supreme Court recognized in Bostock v. Clayton County in 2020.