PART III
FEDERAL SECTOR EEO COMPLAINT PROCESSING:
BENCHMARKS AND AGENCY COMPARISONS

A. GOVERNMENT-WIDE RANGES AND AVERAGES FOR SELECTED INDICATORS

One measure of the success of an agency's EEO program is the amount of time it takes the agency to accomplish activities at the various stages of the complaints process (e.g., pre-complaint counseling, complaint investigations, issuing final decisions, etc.). The following summary table provides data for such specific indicators that measure agency performance in the EEO complaints process:

1. PRE-COMPLAINT COUNSELING TIMES

Applicable EEOC rules require that counseling generally should be completed in 30 days. However, this time limit can be extended to a maximum of 90 days when an aggrieved individual agrees to an extension, or participates in an agency's formal ADR program.

• Government-wide, 42% of instances of non-ADR counseling were completed within 30 days in FY 2002.
• Government-wide, 11.50% of instances of non-ADR counseling exceeded the 90-day limitation in FY 2002.

2. COMPLAINT INVESTIGATION TIMES

Complaint investigations generally should be completed within 180 days, unless the underlying complaint is amended or consolidated with another complaint for investigation. If a complaint is amended or consolidated with another complaint for investigation, the investigation should be completed within 360 days of the date the initial complaint was filed.

• In FY 2002, only 30% of complaint investigations government-wide were completed within 180 days.
• In FY 2002, almost 39% of complaint investigations government-wide took longer than 360 days to complete.
• In FY 2002, the average number of days agencies used to complete complaint investigations increased government-wide - from 240 days in FY 2001 to 267 days in FY 2002.

3. COMPLAINT INVESTIGATION COSTS

• Government-wide, the average cost for contracting out complaint investigations in FY 2002 was $2,600 - approximately two percent less than the $2,650 average cost of agency (in-house) investigations.
• The largest average amount spent on contract investigations by an agency was $7,800, while the largest average amount spent by an agency for agency (in-house) investigations was $20,191.

4. FINAL AGENCY DECISION TIMES

Agencies are required to issue final decisions expeditiously when dismissing complaints that do not belong in the EEO complaint process. Dismissal decisions must be issued no later than the filing of a hearing request by a complainant.

Following the completion of investigations, agencies must notify complainants of their right to request a hearing before an EEOC administrative judge (AJ), or an immediate final decision from the agency. When an immediate final decision is requested, the agency is required to issue the decision within 60 days of its receipt of the request. When a complainant neither requests a hearing or a final decision, the agency is required to issue a final decision within 60 days of the expiration of the 30-day period for requesting a hearing.⁽²⁾

• During FY 2002, agencies issued 10,792 final decisions on complaints where no decision by an AJ was issued.
• Almost 50% of these final agency decisions (5,325) were dismissal decisions.
• Agencies issued these final decisions, on average, in 326 days.
• The shortest amount of time from filing to the issuance of a final decision without an AJ's decision was one day; the longest amount of time was 1,141 days.

B. COMPARISONS BETWEEN CABINET LEVEL, MID-SIZE, AND SMALL AGENCIES

What follows is a comparative analysis of three different broad categories of agencies:⁽³⁾ 15 Cabinet level agencies (including the U.S. Postal Service⁽⁴⁾ and the Department of Defense with all reporting sub-elements), nine mid-size (but not Cabinet level) agencies,⁽⁵⁾ and 46 small agencies (less than 4,000 employees).⁽⁶⁾

1. PRE-COMPLAINT COUNSELING TIMES

• Small agencies were faster in counseling aggrieved individuals than Cabinet level and mid-size agencies. Small agencies completed more instances of counseling within 30 days (58%) and fewer instances of counseling beyond 90 days (7%).
• The Cabinet agencies and the U.S. Postal Service were slower in counseling aggrieved individuals than mid-size and small agencies. They completed fewer instances of counseling within 30 days (41%) and more instances of counseling beyond 90 days (12%).

2. COMPLAINT INVESTIGATION TIMES

• Small agencies completed a larger percentage of their investigations (40%) within 180 days than did mid-size agencies (35%) and Cabinet level agencies (30%).
• Mid-size agencies completed fewer investigations beyond 360 days (11%) than did small agencies (29%) and Cabinet level agencies (41%).
• The Cabinet agencies and the U.S. Postal Service were slower in completing investigations than mid-size and small agencies. They completed fewer investigations within 180 days (30%) and more investigations beyond 360 days (41%).
• However, when the average number of days for completion of an investigation is used as an indicator of performance, a different conclusion may be reached: Cabinet agencies and the U.S. Postal Service completed complaint investigation on average in 267 days, mid-size agencies on average in 246 days, and small agencies on average in 300 days.

3. COMPLAINT INVESTIGATION COSTS

• Cabinet level agencies had the lowest average cost for investigations. They spent, on average, $2,615 for an in-house investigation and $2,519 for a contract investigation.
• At the high end, the small agency average for an in-house investigation was $8,644, and the small agency average for a contract investigation was $3,399.
• Mid-size agencies expended, on average, $4,181 for an in-house investigation and $2,772 for a contract investigation.

4. FINAL AGENCY DECISION TIMES

• Cabinet agencies and the U.S. Postal Service issued most of the dismissal decisions without an AJ decision (5,096) that were issued government-wide (5,325).
• Cabinet agencies and the U.S. Postal Service averaged 316 days for the issuance of a final agency decision without a decision by an AJ, small agencies averaged 444 days, and mid-size agencies averaged 511 days.

C. GOVERNMENT-WIDE COMPLAINT INVENTORY AND RESOLUTIONS

1. COMPLAINT INVENTORY FOR FY 1999 THROUGH FY 2002

• The government-wide inventory of EEO complaints remained essentially the same at the end of FY 2002 as it was at the end of FY 2001.

2. AVERAGE PROCESSING DAYS FOR COMPLAINT RESOLUTIONS

• The average number of days it took an agency to close a complaint varied by the type of resolution.

3. RESOLUTIONS BY STATUTE

• In FY 2002, as in previous years, the majority of closures (61.50%) were of complaints involving Title VII claims.
• Resolutions of cases involving the Rehabilitation Act increased from 18.40% of the total in FY 2001 to 19% in FY 2002; ADEA closures increased from 18.40% of the total in FY 2001 to 19.20% of the FY 2002 total; and resolutions of Equal Pay Act complaints decreased from 0.70% of the FY 2001 total to 0.20% of the total FY 2002 closures.

4. RESOLUTIONS WITH CORRECTIVE ACTION

Agencies reported information on closures with corrective action, with and without monetary benefits. The corrective actions, with and without monetary benefits, included corrective actions awarded in settlement agreements, final agency decisions, and final agency actions in which agencies agreed to fully implement EEOC AJ decisions.⁽⁸⁾

• The total number of complaints agencies closed with corrective action increased by 12%, from 5,222 in FY 2001 to 5,854 in FY 2002.

• Agencies reported that they provided more than $33.5 million in monetary benefits in EEO complaints closed in FY 2002 - a 1.70% increase in total monetary benefits from agencies for FY 2001.

• The amount of compensatory damages agencies reported for complaints closed in FY 2002 totaled more than $8.5 million - a decrease of 5.50% from FY 2001.

1. Counseling data includes all EEO counseling provided by EEO counselors, but does not include EEO counseling provided within formal agency ADR programs. For agency ADR program data, see Part IV: Settlements and the Use of ADR in the Federal Sector EEO Process.

2. For example, if an agency notifies a complainant of the completion of an investigation in 180 days and receives a request for an immediate final decision 30 days later, the final agency decision should be issued within 210 days of the filing of the complaint.

3. For analysis of roughly 60 individual reporting agencies which have 500 or more employees, see Part VII: Agency Profiles.

4. Because of its size and appointing authority, the U.S. Postal Service was included in the Cabinet level agency category.

5. Some mid-size agencies may actually have a work force larger than that of some Cabinet level agencies.

6. Small agencies with less than 100 employees are not by regulation required to report

complaint processing data unless they are specifically requested to do so by the EEOC.

7. Various agencies continue to report discrepancies between the number of complaints pending at the end of a given fiscal year and the number pending at the beginning of the following fiscal year. This created variances in government-wide numbers of pending complaints from FY 1999 through FY 2002, as well as in previous years. By and large, this was due to reconciliation of case numbers, after data is reported to EEOC in the new fiscal year.

8. The corrective actions, with and without monetary benefits, did not include agency appeals from AJ decisions that agencies decided not to fully implement. For more information on such appeals, see Part VI: The EEOC's Appellate Review Program.

This page was last modified on June 26, 2003.

Return to Home Page