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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s combined FY 2025 Agency Performance Report and FY 2027 Agency Performance Plan signals a clear shift in enforcement priorities under Chair Andrea Lucas.

Many companies are incorporating AI into their employment decision-making, especially in hiring. For organizations that receive hundreds or even thousands of applicants per role, AI tools promise efficiency: faster résumé screening, automated candidate ranking and data-driven recommendations. But efficiency does not eliminate legal risk. In some cases, it redistributes it.

The large settlement serves as a bellwether for the agency’s increasing focus on protecting employees from all forms of religious discrimination, harassment and employer refusal to accommodate a wide range of religious beliefs and practices.

A new executive order issued March 26 ups the ante by targeting racially discriminatory DEI activities in federal contracts and subcontracts. It also beefs up enforcement.

The Department of Labor has launched a one-stop web resource for employers, faith organizations and employees aimed at eliminating religious discrimination in the workplace and federal grant-making and contracting.

Back in the early days of the Trump administration, one of the first moves at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was to drop lawsuits alleging discrimination based on gender identity. Now, one of those abruptly dropped cases has been settled after private attorneys stepped in.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has spent the better part of a year pursuing employers’ diversity, equity and inclusion policies, calling them illegal. Federal contractors were an obvious early target. The EEOC has now widened its playing field.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast over allegations that it illegally provides a networking event for female employees only, excluding all male workers. The agency called this sex discrimination and a violation of the Trump administration’s executive orders barring “illegal DEI” practices.

Back in 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission became the first agency or court to conclude that Title VII’s sex-discrimination provisions included protection for individuals whose gender identity did not align with their sex assigned at birth. Fast-forward to 2026, and the same agency has overturned that decision.

Not every stray comment contributes to creating a hostile work environment. Instead, harsh words or acts like excluding someone from a meeting may reflect a management style that, while uncomfortable, does not create a hostile work environment. A recent case distinguishes the two and offers lessons to employers on telling the difference.