Discrimination Settlement Statistics: What the Agencies Recovered

Two warnings before the tables. First, every figure here is what an agency recovered inside its own process. A worker who takes a right to sue and settles with the employer through a lawyer is invisible to both agencies, and that is most represented workers in California. Second, the figures are totals, and totals divided by matters give an average that no single case resembles. We show the averages because people ask, and we say what they are.

What CRD recovered

The 2024 total splits three ways. The enforcement division settled 310 matters for $1,217,448, an average of about $3,927. The dispute resolution division mediated 549 settlements worth $13,471,498, about $24,538 each. The legal division, which litigates, resolved 39 matters for $85,767,631, about $2,199,170 each, and those are mostly systemic cases against large employers rather than individual claims. The 2022 total was far lower because no large legal division cases closed that year.

What the EEOC recovered, by claim type

These are agency process numbers: what an employer agreed to pay during mediation or conciliation, usually early, usually without a lawyer on the worker's side. Sexual harassment charges produce the highest average, about $39,253, which is consistent with what we see: these are the claims employers most want closed quietly.

What the published numbers cannot tell you

A represented California worker almost never settles inside an agency. The lawyer requests a right to sue, files in superior court or in arbitration, takes discovery, and settles at mediation or tries the case. None of that is reported anywhere. The figures on this page are therefore a floor. They are also the wrong comparison for an individual case, because the value of a claim depends on the wages lost, the strength of the evidence, the emotional harm, the employer's conduct after the complaint, and whether punitive damages are in play. California's lack of damage caps is the single biggest reason a case here can be worth more than the same case elsewhere.

What these numbers mean if it happened to you

• Do not measure your case against an agency average. Ask what the evidence supports.
• Early offers at agency mediation are typically a fraction of what a litigated case settles for, because the employer is paying to avoid discovery.
• Lost wages, emotional distress, punitive damages and attorney fees are all recoverable under California law, and the fees shift to the employer when you win.
• A confidential settlement cannot stop you from talking about the underlying facts of harassment or discrimination in California, since 2019 for sexual harassment and since 2022 for all bases.

Sources

The figures on this page were taken from the following publications, as released by the agencies. Percentages, changes, sums and rates per 100,000 workers are our own arithmetic from those figures.

• California Civil Rights Department, 2024 Annual Report (complaint tables and county appendix), calcivilrights.ca.gov
• California Civil Rights Department, 2023 Annual Report, calcivilrights.ca.gov
• California Civil Rights Department, 2022 Annual Report, calcivilrights.ca.gov
• EEOC, Table E1c, charge receipts and resolutions by type, FY 1997 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E2a, charges alleging harassment, FY 2010 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E2c, Title VII sexual harassment charge receipts and resolutions, FY 2010 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E6a, disability (ADA) charge receipts and resolutions, FY 1992 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E4e, race based charge receipts and resolutions, FY 1997 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E5a, age (ADEA) charge receipts and resolutions, FY 1997 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E4d, pregnancy based charge receipts and resolutions, FY 2010 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E8a, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act charge receipts and resolutions, FY 2024 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E4f, religion based charge receipts and resolutions, FY 1997 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E4c, national origin based charge receipts and resolutions, FY 1997 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E3a, Equal Pay Act charge receipts and resolutions, FY 1997 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table L1, litigation statistics, FY 1997 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov

Frequently asked questions