Key numbers
- 2,311charges from New York alleging retaliation in fiscal year 2025, 56% of all 4,132 charges, up from 1,604 in fiscal year 2016EEOC, Table E1b
- 1,589charges from New York alleging disability discrimination in fiscal year 2025, up from 1,061 in fiscal year 2016EEOC, Table E1b
- 4,132EEOC charges from New York in fiscal year 2025, up 10% from 3,740 in fiscal year 2016; nationally charges fell 4%EEOC, Tables E1b and E1a
- 4.7%New York's share of all EEOC charges in fiscal year 2025, up from 4.1% in fiscal year 2016EEOC, Table E1b
Every year the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) publishes how many charges of employment discrimination it received from each state, and on which grounds, or "bases": retaliation, disability, sex, race and so on. This study compares New York's figures for fiscal year 2016 (October 2015 to September 2016) with fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), and with the national figures for the same years.
A charge is a complaint filed with the EEOC. It is an allegation, not a finding that discrimination happened. The EEOC counts a charge under every basis it alleges, so the basis figures add up to more than the total.
- New York
- United States
Source: EEOC, Table E1b, Charge Receipts by State and Basis or Statute (All Statutes), FY 2009 - FY 2025, rows NY and Total.
Retaliation and disability lead the increase
Retaliation, a claim that an employer punished someone for complaining about discrimination or taking part in an investigation, was alleged in 2,311 of the 4,132 charges the EEOC received from New York in fiscal year 2025 (56%), up from 1,604 of 3,740 (43%) in fiscal year 2016. Disability charges rose from 1,061 to 1,589. Both grew faster in New York than nationally, where each rose 29%.
Comparing two single years can exaggerate a trend, so we also compared three-year averages, fiscal years 2016 to 2018 against 2023 to 2025. On that basis retaliation charges from New York rose 20% (nationally 16%) and disability charges rose 38% (nationally 25%). The increases are smaller than the single-year comparison shows, but New York still grew faster than the country on both.
Charges alleging discrimination based on color roughly doubled in New York, from 208 to 414, though the national increase was larger (+117%). Age charges fell in New York and nationally. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, in force since June 27, 2023, accounted for 197 New York charges in fiscal year 2025.
| Basis | FY 2016 | FY 2025 | Change, New York | Share of NY charges, FY 2025 | Change, U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All charges | 3,740 | 4,132 | +10% | −4% | |
| Retaliation (any statute) | 1,604 | 2,311 | +44% | 56% | +29% |
| Disability | 1,061 | 1,589 | +50% | 38% | +29% |
| Sex | 1,202 | 1,449 | +21% | 35% | 0% |
| Race | 1,084 | 1,323 | +22% | 32% | −9% |
| Age | 865 | 707 | −18% | 17% | −22% |
| National origin | 601 | 581 | −3% | 14% | −20% |
| Color | 208 | 414 | +99% | 10% | +117% |
| Religion | 180 | 219 | +22% | 5% | −3% |
| Retaliation (Title VII only) | 1,401 | 1,662 | +19% | 40% | +9% |
| Equal Pay Act | 57 | 49 | −14% | 1% | −14% |
| Genetic information (GINA) | 13 | 12 | −8% | 0% | +89% |
| Pregnant Workers Fairness Act | 197 | 5% |
Source: EEOC, Table E1b (rows NY and Total), FY 2009 - FY 2025; the U.S. figures match EEOC Table E1a. One charge can allege several bases, so the rows add up to more than all charges. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act took effect on June 27, 2023, so there is no fiscal year 2016 figure.
How New York compares with the country
All EEOC charges from New York rose 10% over the period while charges nationwide fell 4%, so New York's share of the national total grew from 4.1% to 4.7%. Of the 8 bases in the chart, New York's charges grew faster than (or fell less than) the national figure for 7: retaliation (any statute), disability, sex, race, age, national origin and religion.
Retaliation is a smaller share of New York charges than of charges nationally: 56% in New York in fiscal year 2025, against 62% across the country.
Year by year
Charges from New York fell every year from fiscal year 2016 to a low of 2,580 in fiscal year 2021, then rose every year to 4,132 in 2025. Retaliation charges swing from year to year: 2,077 in 2023, 1,561 in 2024 and 2,311 in 2025. Religion charges spiked in fiscal year 2022 (1,143 in New York, against 106 the year before), which the EEOC's table notes attribute to a significant increase in vaccine-related charges.
| Fiscal year | All charges | Retaliation | Disability | Sex | Race | Share of U.S. charges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY 2016 | 3,740 | 1,604 | 1,061 | 1,202 | 1,084 | 4.1% |
| FY 2017 | 3,690 | 1,711 | 1,052 | 1,142 | 1,095 | 4.4% |
| FY 2018 | 3,478 | 1,654 | 995 | 1,299 | 901 | 4.6% |
| FY 2019 | 3,220 | 1,841 | 1,008 | 1,209 | 881 | 4.4% |
| FY 2020 | 2,999 | 1,774 | 930 | 1,190 | 872 | 4.4% |
| FY 2021 | 2,580 | 1,497 | 928 | 905 | 776 | 4.2% |
| FY 2022 | 3,534 | 1,466 | 995 | 940 | 746 | 4.8% |
| FY 2023 | 4,011 | 2,077 | 1,331 | 1,411 | 1,134 | 4.9% |
| FY 2024 | 4,105 | 1,561 | 1,367 | 1,469 | 1,317 | 4.6% |
| FY 2025 | 4,132 | 2,311 | 1,589 | 1,449 | 1,323 | 4.7% |
Source: EEOC, Table E1b. Fiscal years run October to September. Every basis from fiscal year 2009 is in the downloadable data below.
What these numbers count, and what they leave out
- The EEOC enforces federal law. Its figures exclude complaints filed only with the New York State Division of Human Rights or the New York City Commission on Human Rights, which enforce broader state and city laws.
- The EEOC does not publish harassment charges by state, so this study cannot say whether harassment complaints from New York are rising. National harassment figures, and the State Division and City Commission numbers, are on our page of New York workplace discrimination statistics.
- Counts are charges received in the fiscal year, not charges resolved, and say nothing about how the charges ended.
What this means for New York workers
- Retaliation is the claim most often raised in New York EEOC charges. Federal, state and city law all protect workers who complain about discrimination, support a coworker's complaint or take part in an investigation.
- Disability charges from New York have grown by about half since fiscal year 2016, faster than the national increase.
- Deadlines differ by forum: a federal charge generally must reach the EEOC within 300 days in New York, while state and city claims have their own limits. Our statistics page and New York workplace rights guide explain the forums.
Method
We read the New York row ("NY") and the national row ("Total") of EEOC Table E1b for fiscal years 2009 to 2025, and compared fiscal year 2016 with fiscal year 2025 basis by basis. Percentage changes are computed from the published counts and rounded to whole percents. The national figures were confirmed against EEOC Table E1a, a separate national table.
A script computes every figure on this page from the EEOC files. A separate check script downloads both tables again, finds the New York row by its name rather than its code, and confirms the headline figures.
Sources
Limits of this data
- Charges are allegations. They are not findings that discrimination happened.
- A charge is counted under every basis it alleges, so basis counts overlap and cannot be added.
- The EEOC counts only charges filed with it. Complaints filed only with the New York State Division of Human Rights or the New York City Commission on Human Rights are not included.
- EEOC Table E1b does not say how a charge is assigned to a state; this study uses the table's New York row as published.
- Changes between two single years can reflect one-off swings, such as the 2022 religion spike or the drop in retaliation charges in 2024, so the page also shows three-year averages and the year-by-year table.
- The EEOC does not publish harassment charges by state.
Cite this study
Joya Law Firm, "Which Discrimination Charges Are Rising in New York," published November 12, 2026, https://joya.law/research/new-york-discrimination-charge-trends/. Data: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Tables E1a and E1b.
Download the data: new-york-discrimination-charge-trends.csv (EEOC charges by basis, New York and United States, fiscal years 2009-2025; counts from 1 to 9 left blank). The data files are free to reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0); please credit Joya Law Firm and link to this page.