California's Civil Rights Department received 33,505 civil rights intake forms in 2024 and secured $99.4 million in settlements across 872 cases. Nationally, the EEOC received 88,201 charges in FY 2025, and retaliation appeared in 61.6% of them, the most common allegation. Every figure on this page links to the government table it comes from.
In this guide
How many workplace discrimination complaints are filed in California?
California workers file with two agencies. Most use the state's Civil Rights Department (CRD), which received 33,505 intake forms in 2024, 16,924 of them immediate right-to-sue requests, where the worker asks for authority to take their employment case straight to court. From the remaining intakes, CRD launched 6,089 investigations covering 7,195 complaints, and 4,077 of those investigations, the majority, were employment cases.
A smaller number of Californians file directly with the federal EEOC instead: 4,750 charges in FY 2025. That figure counts only direct EEOC filings, the EEOC's own tables note it excludes charges filed with state agencies like CRD, which is why the state numbers are so much larger.
What types of workplace discrimination are alleged most in California?
In CRD's 4,077 employment investigations in 2024, the most common bases were disability (2,174 complaints), retaliation for reporting or resisting discrimination or harassment (1,775), sex/gender (1,257), and race (1,190). A single complaint can allege more than one basis.
Sexual harassment specifically appeared in 487 investigated employment complaints (449 hostile-environment and 38 quid pro quo), and in far greater volume among right-to-sue filings, where workers alleged hostile-environment sexual harassment 6,787 times and quid pro quo harassment 2,730 times in 2024.
The same pattern shows up in California's direct EEOC filings: retaliation appeared in 61.6% of the state's FY 2025 charges (2,926), disability in 43.5% (2,066), race in 33.1% (1,572), and sex in 28.4% (1,350).
How much do California discrimination cases settle for?
CRD secured settlements in 872 cases in 2024, totaling $99,411,396 in monetary relief for complainants and other aggrieved persons. Most of that total came through the agency's Legal Division ($85.8 million across 39 cases), with mediations adding $13.5 million across 549 cases.
Two 2024 examples show the scale employers face: CRD obtained a $15 million settlement with Snapchat over alleged discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against women, and a $14.4 million settlement with Microsoft over alleged retaliation against workers who used protected leave.
Every case is different, agency totals and individual settlements say nothing about the value of any particular claim. What they document is that California's enforcement system recovers real money at scale.
Sources [1]
How common are harassment and retaliation nationally?
The national backdrop makes the California numbers legible. The EEOC received 88,201 new discrimination charges in FY 2025, and retaliation was alleged in 61.6% of them (54,350 charges), up sharply from 47.8% the year before, and the most common allegation in the system.
Harassment charges reached 37,397 in FY 2025, continuing a steep climb from 21,270 in FY 2021, and harassment resolutions produced $261.9 million in pre-litigation monetary benefits. Title VII sexual-harassment charges specifically reached 8,475.
The EEOC's own task-force research explains why filed charges understate the problem: 75% of employees who spoke out against workplace mistreatment faced some form of retaliation, and roughly three out of four people who experienced harassment never reported it to a supervisor or manager at all.
Questions, answered.
How many workplace discrimination complaints were filed in California in 2024?
The California Civil Rights Department received 33,505 civil rights intake forms in 2024, including 16,924 immediate right-to-sue requests in employment cases; separately, California workers filed 4,750 charges directly with the federal EEOC in FY 2025.
Source [1]
What is the most common workplace discrimination complaint in California?
Among CRD's 2024 employment investigations, disability discrimination was the most common basis (2,174 complaints), followed by retaliation for reporting or resisting discrimination or harassment (1,775), sex/gender (1,257), and race (1,190).
Source [1]
How much money did California recover for discrimination victims?
CRD secured settlements in 872 cases in 2024, totaling $99,411,396 in monetary relief, including a $15 million settlement with Snapchat and a $14.4 million settlement with Microsoft.
Source [1]
Is retaliation really the most common workplace claim?
Yes, nationally, retaliation appeared in 61.6% of all EEOC charges in FY 2025 (54,350 of 88,201), making it the single most common allegation, and the EEOC's task-force research found 75% of employees who spoke out against mistreatment faced some form of retaliation.
Source [5]