Title VII Compliance Refresher: What Employers Need to Know

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act remains the primary federal law prohibiting employment discrimination and harassment based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex. As discussed in our June 2026 webinar, in the current environment, all employers should review their organization’s overall compliance with Title VII, including to ensure protected characteristics are not used in the decision-making process for hiring, promotion, pay, assignments, discipline, termination, or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment.

Who is covered by Title VII  

Title VII generally applies to private employers with 15 or more employees for at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or prior year. The law also applies to labor organizations and employment agencies, and federal, state and local governments.

Covered individuals include employees, applicants, former employees, and individuals participating in training or apprenticeship programs.

Prohibited conduct: discrimination, harassment, and retaliation

Title VII prohibits intentional discrimination, defined as treating someone differently because of a protected characteristic, with respect to the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment. Title VII currently covers the following protected characteristics:

• Race and color
• National origin
• Religion
• Sex (including pregnancy)

The law also prohibits limiting, segregating, or classifying workers in ways tied to protected traits.

Although the Trump Administration is more focused on disparate treatment claims, “neutral” policies or practices can also still be unlawful under Title VII if the policy or practice disproportionately harms a protected group, unless the employer can show the practice is job-related and consistent with business necessity.

Harassment based on a protected characteristic is prohibited, whether it comes from a supervisor, a co-worker, or even a non-employee such as a customer or client.

Retaliation is also prohibited. Actions that could deter someone from raising or supporting a discrimination concern (such as withholding promotions, changing assignments, or termination) create heightened risk, even when an underlying complaint is not substantiated.

Finally, covered employers are required to reasonably accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs, unless the employer can show the burden of providing accommodation is substantial in the overall context of the employer’s business.

How enforcement typically works

Individuals must file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC before going to court. Workers have 180 days to file a charge after the discriminatory event, although this time is extended to 300 days if a state or local fair employment practice agency enforces a similar law.

Once a charge is filed, the EEOC sends the employer a written notice, with a request to submit a Position Statement outlining its side of the story and providing factual or legal defenses. The EEOC offers mediation for some, but not all, charges of discrimination, which provides parties with an early, informal means of resolving workplace disputes. If a charge is not resolved early, the EEOC investigates the claim, including through document requests and interviews. At the end of the process, the EEOC issues a determination, finding either “reasonable cause” or “no reasonable cause.”

If the EEOC finds reasonable cause to believe that discrimination has occurred, the agency is required to “conciliate” the charge, which is an informal process to try and resolve the complaint. If the claim is not resolved, the EEOC can decide to file a lawsuit on the individual’s behalf, or it issues a “Notice of Right to Sue” which allows the individual to file their own lawsuit in federal court.

Enforcement priorities and what employers should expect

The EEOC recently issued a National Enforcement Plan which outlines the agency’s current enforcement priorities, including the following:  

• Intentional discrimination, including systemic pattern and practice treatment claims where a broad-based employment policy or practice results in different treatment
• Cases that promote the development of case law given recent Supreme Court decisions
• Cases involving vulnerable workers, including teenage workers, persons with limited literacy, employees in low-wage jobs, sexual assault survivors, and employees with developmental or intellectual disabilities
• Cases regarding the integrity of EEOC’s enforcement process, including retaliation for participating in EEOC proceedings
• Cases where EEOC can clarify liability of religious organizations, and
• Evenhanded enforcement of the civil rights laws enforced by the agency
  

Since the beginning of the current Administration in January 2025, the EEOC has taken special interest in the following work-related topics:  

• DEI-related discrimination
• Anti-American national original discrimination
• Workers’ religious liberty rights and the provision of reasonable accommodation, and
• The scope of the prohibition against sex discrimination
  

Although the EEOC’s National Enforcement Plan provides a good roadmap for employers, employers must remember that EEOC priorities can change over time, but Title VII’s statutory requirements do not. Thus, employers should ensure they understand and comply with all Title VII obligations. In addition, employers need to make sure they are complying with any state or local requirements, which increasingly provide different protections than federal law.  

Practical actions employers can take now

1. Continue to train managers and employees on equal employment opportunity, harassment prevention, accommodation handling, and retaliation risk, using clear escalation steps.
2. Review accommodation processes (especially religious accommodations) and ensure they are clear, documented, and consistently applied.
3. Audit key talent processes (recruiting, hiring, promotions, compensation, disciplinary, training, and mentorship programs) to ensure the programs comply with Title VII. This review should be both qualitative (review of written policies and practices) and quantitative (review of employment transaction data to evaluate how policies and practices are implemented).
4. Strengthen documentation and record retention for hiring, promotion, compensation, and disciplinary decisions.
5. Check state and local requirements before changing data collection or compliance practices.