Elizabeth HirshUniversity of British Columbia

Civil Rights Act of 1964 established U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce law

Responsibility of workers to identify discrimination and mobilize their rights by filing formal claims with EEOC and in court

Before proceeding to court, workers must file with EEOC ~80,000-90,000 EEOC charges per year

I. Charge ProcessII. Data StructureIII. Getting access

- Confidentiality agreements- Getting to know the data

IV. Matching data sourcesV. Research applicationsVI. Future research

Data files:1.Charge

- Contains basic information on charging party and respondent (targeted employer)

- Basic information on law cited (Title VII, EPA, ADEA, ADA)

2.Allegation- One to many match to charge file (i.e., each charge

can contain multiple “allegations” of discrimination- Contains details on the basis (sex, race, national

origin, religion, age, disability) and employment issue (hire, promotion, termination, pay, harassment, etc)

3. Actions- Describes all actions taken by investigators as allegation/charge moves through EEOC remedial process (i.e., mediation, conciliation, reasonable cause determination, notice of right to sue)

4. Benefits-Describes any benefits awarded including monetary, nonmonetary, policy changes, etc.

5. Litigation (?)

1. Confidentiality agreement with EEOC

- Under intergovernmental personnel act

- Become an unpaid employee of the EEOC

2. Getting to know the data

- Becoming an unpaid intern at an EEOC district office, investigation unit

- Processed charges from intake through conciliation

- Investigators’ employee manual as “codebook”

Matching to EEO-1 Data (or other survey data) Recently, intake officers assigning EEO-1 numbers to

charges/allegations as they come in Historically, no connection between EEOC charge

data and EEO-1 employer data Using natural language search in SQL to look up and

extract charges for various samples of EEO-1 reporting firms/establishments 60% success rate 40% manually look up in charge data by name and zip

code

Matching to legal data sources Tracing high-profile litigation back to original EEOC

charge(s)

Project 1: Organizational origins and impact of charges

Using matched sample of 2166 EEO-1 reporting establishments to 10, 820 charges, examined contexts that give rise to charges, charge processing/outcomes, and impact of charges on workplace segregationExamined workplace conditions that lead to charges, charge outcomes, and impact on workplace equality (Hirsh 2008; Hirsh and Kornrich 2008; Hirsh 2009)

Project 2: Diversity-oriented HR Practices and Charges (with Julie Kmec)

Surveyed 300 EEO-1 reporting establishments about HR practices, matched survey data to chargesExamining effect of HR policies on charges and outcomes (as well as substantive measures of inequality)

Project 3: EEO lawsuits and legal mobilization

Examining 500 high-profile lawsuits, interviewing subset of plaintiffs about legal mobilization/experiencesExtracting original charge data for these lawsuits

Other applications:- Laura Beth Nielsen, Robert Nelson, Ryon Lancaster, Ellen Berrey and colleagues match litigation to charge data (Nielsen, Nelson, Lancaster 2010)- Susanne Bruyere, Sarah Von Schrader and colleagues at Cornell’s Employment and Disability Institute analyzing trends in ADA charges

EEO/charge “report cards” or “compliance record” for industries (or even firms)

Matching charge data to geographical data

“Reverse” discrimination charges Focus on retaliation charges and

intra/intergroup relations Ethnography of charging/resolution

process