In 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reaffirmed its status as the federal watchdog for workplace discrimination, after years of pulling back on litigation activity under the Trump administration’s appointees. With the long-awaited confirmation of EEOC commissioner Kalpana Kotagal, the agency — which is led by five commissioners appointed by the president — now has a Democratic majority, allowing the agency to break its deadlock and move forward with its regulatory agenda.

In a return to form, the EEOC filed 143 employment discrimination lawsuits during the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30 — more than double the number of filings issued in fiscal year 2022. The agency also redoubled its efforts with systemic cases — a special designation used for a pattern of discrimination that has a broad impact on an industry or region — with 25 such lawsuits, the highest number of filings in the past five years.

Beyond increasing the cadence of its litigation, the EEOC issued its interpretation of new laws like the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, or PWFA, which went into effect in 2023, as well as renewed guidance on harassment in the workplace; the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace and the potential for discrimination has been a major focus as well and an issue that Democratic and Republican commissioners have been aligned on.

The lawsuits brought by the EEOC in 2023 represent the full spectrum of issues that the agency can address, from sexual harassment to discrimination in hiring. But the EEOC only pursues litigation for a handful of cases that come its way, so its choice of lawsuits also signals its priorities and offers insight into how the EEOC will approach enforcement in 2024.

Pregnancy discrimination

The PWFA went into effect in June, requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant and postpartum workers. Since then, the EEOC has proposed a rule outlining its broad interpretation of the law, which protects workers facing any pregnancy- related medical conditions. In 2023, the agency filed multiple lawsuits against employers who allegedly fired pregnant employees. The EEOC also recently settled a lawsuit against Frontier Airlines that was filed four years ago, alleging discrimination against pregnant and lactating employees. The case aligns with the agency’s focus on enforcing both the PWFA and the Pump Act, the latter of which forces employers to provide break time and a private space for workers to pump; as part of the settlement, Frontier was also expected to adopt new policies — such as allowing pilots to pump in the cockpit during certain stretches of a flight.

AI-related discrimination

Over the past two years, the EEOC has turned its attention to the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace — namely, trying to understand how employers are increasingly using the technology for hiring and employment decisions. In May, the agency shared guidance for employers on how the technology could engender discrimination without the right guardrails, along with technical assistance on how employers can ensure they comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 2023, the EEOC settled its first AI-related lawsuit, which alleged that the China-based online education company iTutorGroup programmed its application software to screen out U.S. candidates on the basis of age. (The settlement includes a $365,000 payout, though iTutorGroup continues to deny the allegations.) The agency has already caled AI-related discrimination as a priority in the next four years.

Disability discrimination

While the EEOC has pinpointed AI technology as a potential source of bias, several of its cases tackled other forms of disability discrimination. The agency settled multiple lawsuits against employers like Papa John’s, Sinclair Broadcast Group and the tech company Cloudbeds for failing to provide accommodations to disabled workers, along with a $750,000 settlement with electricity provider PNM. Another case requires a $1 million payout from Dollar General — over allegations that the company required a preemployment medical exam and rescinded job offers based on those results. The EEOC also took on a lawsuit against UPS for allegedly screening out disabled applicants and multiple cases against Walmart over claims that the retail giant unfairly terminated disabled employees.

Workplace harassment

From 2016 to 2022, a third of the discrimination charges received by the EEOC included allegations of harassment. The EEOC has made workplace harassment a key part of its enforcement plan, to help address systemic harassment and protect particularly vulnerable communities against harassment. In 2023, the EEOC sued Walmart over alleged sexual harassment and retaliation and announced a series of lawsuits targeting harassment issues at Las Vegas restaurants, including a case against Thomas Keller’s restaurant group. The agency also settled a litany of cases that alleged sexual harassment across different industries, often coupled with retaliation or other forms of harassment; one such settlement involved a $400,000 payout from Chipotle.

Racial and religious discrimination

The harassment cases taken on by the EEOC often overlap with other forms of discrimination. That’s evident from the litigation that the agency has pursued, which targets several notable employers: a lawsuit against Tesla alleges that the company condoned harassment of its Black employees and retaliated against those who tried to address the issue, while another lawsuit against Chipotle alleges that a Muslim employee was harassed and discriminated against for wearing a hijab. The EEOC has also sued Hooters over allegations that the company did not rehire workers who were Black or had darker skin tones after pandemic- era layoffs. The agency also settled another racial discrimination and retaliation case against Hooters for $650,000, along with several settlements with other companies and a $1.2 million payout from Whiting-Turner, over allegations that the construction company failed to address repeated discrimination against Black employees who were working on construction of a Google data center.