The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 is a

United States federal law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as ...

which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the "1964 Act") to address employment discrimination against African Americans and other minorities. Specifically, it empowered the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

to take enforcement action against individuals, employers, and labor unions which violated the employment provisions of the 1964 Act, and expanded the jurisdiction of the commission as well. It also required employers to make

reasonable accommodation A reasonable accommodation is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on a proven need. That need can vary. Accommodations can be religious, physical, mental or emotional, academic, physic ...

for the religious practices of employees. The employment provisions of the 1964 Act only applied to firms with 25 or more employees; the 1972 Act extended that to firms with 15 or more employees. The version of the bill reported out of the House Committee on Education and Labor would have decreased the threshold to eight employees; however, some senators, including Norris Cotton (R-NH),

Paul Fannin Paul Jones Fannin (January 29, 1907January 13, 2002) was an American businessman and politician. A Republican, he served as a U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1965 to 1977. He previously served as the 11th governor of Arizona from 1959 to 1965. Ea ...

(R-AZ), and John C. Stennis (D-MS), expressed concern for the impact on small businesses. (During the debate on the initial version of Title VII in 1964, Cotton in particular had proposed increasing the threshold to 100 employees). Despite support for the eight-employee threshold from other senators such as

Jacob Javits Jacob Koppel Javits ( ; May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was an American lawyer and politician. During his time in politics, he represented the state of New York in both houses of the United States Congress. A member of the Republican Party, he al ...

(R-NY), the Senate amended the threshold to fifteen, and the House subsequently agreed in conference. The fifteen-employee threshold remains in place as of 2020. A 1998 study based on

Current Population Survey The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 60,000 U.S. households conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS uses the data to publish reports early each month called the Em ...

data found that there were "large shifts in the employment and pay practices of the industries most affected" by the 1972 Act, and concluded that it had "a positive impact" on African Americans' labor market status. With regards to government employment, a 1978 study found that the act had little impact on employment of African Americans in the higher levels of the federal civil service.

References

External links

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Richard Nixon's signing statement
about the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, from the American Presidency Project 1972 in American law 92nd United States Congress Anti-discrimination law in the United States United States federal labor legislation {{US-fed-statute-stub