The EEOC Goes “Systemic”

Targeting systemic discrimination, as opposed to individual infractions, is nothing new for the EEOC, writes Washington Post labor and business reporter Lydia DePillis, but two things have happened that are making it more common. One is that the agency’s budget in real dollar terms has been shrinking, and it’s finding it can get more bang for the buck when it targets systemic patterns of discrimination rather than individual cases. The other is that the Supreme Court, in rebuffing a 2011 case involving thousand of female Walmart employees, established a precedent that made it more difficult to mount a discrimination class action lawsuit. Systemic investigations are seen as uniquely unfair by many employers, and a long-festering age discrimination case against Texas Roadhouse, a Louisville-based steakhouse chain, is detailed as a case in point. Now there’s speculation the EEOC is primed to apply a similar strategy on an entirely different and far richer industry.