Does My Employer Have to Have 15 Employees for Me to File an EEOC Charge?
It depends on what you are claiming. The 15-employee threshold is real, but it is not universal. Some federal protections apply to employers of any size. Others kick in at 15. One kicks in at 20. Getting this wrong can send you down the wrong path before you even start.
Here is the full breakdown.
The 15-employee threshold applies to most EEOC claims.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act all require that your employer have at least 15 employees to be covered. That count includes part-time workers, and it applies for at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or preceding year.
If your employer has 14 employees, none of those statutes apply, and the EEOC cannot take your charge under any of them.
Age discrimination has a higher threshold.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers who are 40 or older, but it only applies to employers with 20 or more employees. If you are 55 and your employer has 17 people, the ADEA does not cover you at the federal level.
Equal pay has no threshold at all.
The Equal Pay Act applies to all employers, regardless of size. If you are being paid less than a coworker of a different sex for substantially equal work, you can file an EEOC charge under the EPA even if your employer has two employees. This is one of the most overlooked protections in federal employment law.
How employees are counted matters.
The employee count is not simply a headcount on the day you file. Courts look at whether the employer had 15 or more employees for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks during the current or preceding year. Part-time employees count. Employees on leave count. What does not count are independent contractors, which is one reason some employers misclassify workers.
If you are close to the threshold, the analysis gets fact-specific. An employer with 13 employees in January who hired 4 more in March may well meet the threshold for the full year.
Joint employers can be counted together.
If you work for a staffing agency placed at a client company, or if your employer shares control over your work with another entity, you may be dealing with joint employers. In that situation, the employee counts of both entities may be combined for purposes of determining EEOC coverage. Joint employer analysis is one of the more complex areas of employment law and the EEOC has its own guidance on how it applies.
What if my employer is too small for federal coverage?
Small employer does not mean no recourse. Most states have their own fair employment practices laws that cover smaller employers. Texas, for example, covers employers with 15 or more employees under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, which mirrors the federal threshold. Some cities and counties go further.
If your employer falls below the federal threshold, your next step is to research your state’s employment discrimination law or consult an employment attorney about state-level options.
What about unions and employment agencies?
Labor organizations and employment agencies are covered entities under Title VII and the other major federal statutes regardless of the number of employees they have. If a union caused or contributed to the discrimination you experienced, the threshold rules that apply to employers do not apply in the same way.
Use the eligibility calculator before you assume you are not covered.
The threshold question is one of the first things the EEOC Eligibility Calculator at Discrimination Navigator walks through. If you are unsure whether your employer meets the size requirement, run the calculator before you conclude your options are limited. You may have more coverage than you think.
