According to information released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in 2011 the agency received a record number of discrimination charges and obtained a record amount of relief for discrimination claimants.

In a press release issued January 25, 2012, the agency stated that it received 99,947 discrimination charges against private sector employers in FY 2011 (which ended September 30, 2011). This is up slightly from the 99,922 it received in 2010. Charges alleging retaliation under all of the statutes the EEOC enforces accounted for the highest overall percentage of private sector complaints received (37.4%), followed closely by race discrimination complaints (35.4%). Claims of religious discrimination, while not as numerous as retaliation and race discrimination claims, increased by a little over 9%, which was the highest percentage of increase of any of the charge categories.