Annual Report on EEOC Developments – Fiscal Year 2025

This Annual Report on EEOC Developments—Fiscal Year 2025 (hereafter “Report”), our fifteenth annual publication, is designed as a comprehensive guide to significant Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC” or “the Commission”) developments over the past fiscal year. The Report does not merely summarize case law and litigation statistics, but also analyzes the EEOC’s successes, setbacks, changes, and strategies. By focusing on key developments and anticipated trends, the Report provides employers with a roadmap to where the EEOC is headed in the year to come.

This year’s Report is organized into the following sections:

Part One discusses the rise of religious accommodation and discrimination claims over the past year. The EEOC has made combating religious discrimination a priority, and the Supreme Court’s decision in Groff v. DeJoy raised the bar for an employer’s undue hardship defense. This opening chapter highlights the types of religious discrimination and accommodation claims employees are raising, how courts are evaluating the merits of these claims, and the extent to which employers must accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious belief, particularly when doing so may conflict with other employees’ rights and their business operations.

Part Two outlines EEOC charge activity, litigation, and settlements in FY 2025, focusing on the types and location of lawsuits filed by the Commission. More details on noteworthy consent decrees, conciliation agreements, judgments and jury verdicts are summarized in Appendix B to this Report.

Part Three focuses on the current composition of the EEOC, its regulatory activities, and other agency priorities and initiatives.

Part Four summarizes the EEOC’s investigations and subpoena enforcement actions, particularly where the EEOC has made broad-based requests to conduct class-type investigations in pursuit of its goal to combat systemic discrimination. Appendix C to this Report supplements this section in summarizing subpoena enforcement actions filed by the EEOC during FY 2025.

Part Five of the Report focuses on FY 2025 litigation in which the EEOC was a party. This discussion is broken down into numerous topic areas, including: (1) pleading deficiencies raised by employers and the EEOC; (2) statutes of limitations cases involving both pattern-or-practice and other types of claims; (3) intervention and consolidation of claims with private counsel representing charging parties; (4) class issues in EEOC litigation; (5) other critical issues in EEOC litigation, including protective orders, ESI and experts; (6) general discovery issues in litigation between the parties; (7) favorable and unfavorable summary judgment rulings; (8) default judgments against employers; (9) trial-related issues and those tied to remedies and settlements; and (10) circumstances in which courts have awarded attorneys’ fees to prevailing parties.

Appendices A-C are useful resources that should be read in tandem with the Report. Appendix A provides summaries of EEOC case filings and settlements involving allegations of religious discrimination. Appendix B includes summaries of significant EEOC consent decrees, conciliation agreements, judgments, and jury verdicts. Appendix C includes information on select subpoena enforcement actions filed by the EEOC in FY 2025.

We hope that this Report serves as a useful resource for employers in their EEO compliance activities and provides helpful guidance when faced with litigation involving the EEOC.

Click here to read the full Report.