How to File a Sex Discrimination Charge With the EEOC, and the 180- or 300-Day Deadline

A worker who believes an employer discriminated because of sex generally has to file a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before bringing a Title VII lawsuit. The charge must be filed within a fixed period that starts on the day the alleged practice occurred. The federal statute sets the baseline at 180 days, and it can extend to 300 days in some cases.

Pay claims follow different rules. Title VII pay claims need a charge first, while claims under the Equal Pay Act can go to court directly and carry their own limits. The EEOC describes the Equal Pay Act as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The sections below set out those rules as the EEOC and the federal code state them, along with the steps for starting a charge through the agency’s online portal.

The 180-Day Baseline and When 300 Days Applies

The EEOC’s time-limits guidance says a charge must generally be filed within 180 calendar days from the day the discrimination took place. The statute uses the same 180-day period, measured from when the unlawful employment practice occurred.

The period extends to 300 days where a state or local agency enforces a law against the same type of discrimination, according to the EEOC. The statute describes the trigger differently. It refers to a worker who first began proceedings with a state or local agency that has authority to grant or seek relief from the practice, or to institute criminal proceedings.

The statute also sets a 30-day alternative. It runs from notice that the state or local agency has ended its proceedings, and whichever of the two deadlines is earlier applies.

For age discrimination, the EEOC says the period is not extended when only a local law prohibits age discrimination. The extension applies only where a state law is enforced by a state agency or authority.

Which period applies therefore depends on whether a state or local agency is involved in the same claim.

The Basic EEOC Deadline
The EEOC says a charge must generally be filed within 180 calendar days from the day the discrimination took place, extended to 300 days where a state or local agency enforces a law against the same type of discrimination.

How Separate Events and Ongoing Harassment Are Timed

The deadline usually applies to each discriminatory event on its own. In the EEOC’s example, a demotion and a later firing are separate events. The demotion came too late to challenge, and only the discharge claim was timely.

For ongoing harassment, the 180- or 300-day period runs from the last incident of harassment. The EEOC says it will look at all incidents of harassment during an investigation, including older ones, even though the filing period is measured from the most recent incident.

The timing rules for pay claims work differently, with each paycheck or payment setting its own start date. The next section covers those rules.

Pay Claims Under Title VII and the Equal Pay Act

Pay claims under Title VII must start with a charge, while Equal Pay Act claims can go straight to court.

Title VII also prohibits sex-based pay discrimination. Under subsection (e)(3) of the statute, the period for a compensation claim runs from when a discriminatory compensation decision or practice is adopted, from when a worker becomes subject to it, and from each payment, including each time wages, benefits or other compensation are paid.

That subsection was added by Public Law 111-2, according to the statute’s source notes. The EEOC’s notice on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 says the President signed that Act on January 29, 2009. The EEOC’s notice on the Act says it supersedes the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. That ruling had required a pay discrimination charge within 180 days of the pay-setting decision, or 300 days where a state or local law covered the same conduct. The EEOC says the Act restores its earlier position that each paycheck delivering discriminatory compensation is a wrong actionable under the federal EEO statutes.

The EEOC gives the Act’s effective date as May 28, 2007, and says it covers pending claims on or after that date. The Act covers claims under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The statute also says relief may include back pay for up to two years preceding the filing of the charge.

The EEOC says the Equal Pay Act prohibits paying employees of one sex less than employees of the opposite sex in the same establishment for jobs requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions. Exceptions include seniority systems, merit systems, systems that measure earnings by quantity or quality of production, and differentials based on a factor other than sex.

Under the Equal Pay Act, a worker can go directly to court without first filing an EEOC charge. The statute at 29 U.S.C. 255 says a claim may be brought within two years after the cause of action accrued, or within three years for a willful violation.

The EEOC’s time-limits page measures the Equal Pay Act period from the last discriminatory paycheck, with two years as the general period and three years for willful discrimination. The statute uses accrual as its starting point. The two descriptions use different starting points.

The EEOC’s time-limits page says a Title VII charge does not extend the deadline for filing an Equal Pay Act lawsuit.

Pay claims under Title VII must start with a charge, while Equal Pay Act claims can go straight to court.

Starting a Charge Through the EEOC Public Portal

The filing process starts on the EEOC Public Portal. From there, a worker submits an online inquiry and schedules an intake interview. The EEOC’s filing guidance describes an interview with an EEOC staff member as the best way to assess how to address your concerns.

The guidance states that the final decision to file a charge belongs to the person filing. The charge itself is completed in the portal after the inquiry and interview. The EEOC defines a charge as a signed statement that an employer, union or labor organization engaged in employment discrimination, asking the agency to take remedial action.

Attorneys can use EEOC E-File for Attorneys to upload a charge the client has signed, or to create a charge in the portal for the client to sign.

Workers with 60 days or fewer left to file receive separate portal directions for quickly providing information and filing. The filing guidance also directs readers to find their nearest EEOC office on the site.

The time-limits page lists 1-800-669-4000 for questions about the agency. The notice on the Ledbetter Act gives it for more information on filing a charge, with a TTY line at 1-800-669-6820 for callers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Weekends, Holidays and Internal Grievances

When the last day of a deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, the worker has until the next business day. Weekends and holidays otherwise count toward the period.

Internal processes generally do not stop the clock. The EEOC says time limits generally will not be extended while a worker first pursues an internal grievance, a union grievance, arbitration or mediation. Those forums can run at the same time as the charge.

The dates that matter are the day of each act, the day of each payment in a pay claim, and the last incident in a harassment claim. Each one sets the start of the period that applies to that claim.