06-25-2026
Employer Insight: The EEOC published its new National Enforcement Plan (NEP), providing a roadmap for its investigative priorities over the next few years. The NEP replaces the previous one for the years 2024-2028.
The agency set six substantive enforcement priorities.
- Intentional discrimination. The EEOC will focus on cases involving overt and facially discriminatory employment practices and intentional discrimination from employment policies, practices, and programs. It will deprioritize disparate impact or facially neutral but discriminatory policies. The EEOC will review programs that use quotas or workforce targets or tie employment opportunities to race, sex, or other protected characteristics.
- Cases with the potential to develop law. Specifically, matters that involve the application of recent Supreme Court precedent, like the scope of Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination, the legality of affirmative action-like programs, constitutional protections for religious organizations and religious employers, and discrimination claims made by majority group members.
- Protecting vulnerable workers, including teenagers, persons with limited literacy or education, individuals in low-wage jobs, sexual assault survivors, and workers with developmental or intellectual disabilities.
- Preserving the integrity of EEOC’s enforcement process. The EEOC will focus on conduct that interferes with employee participation in its investigative process or the failure to produce information relevant to its investigations.
- Cases that clarify liability standards for religious organizations and employers. The agency is looking to clarify the constitutional and statutory limitations on liability.
- The EEOC will make evenhanded enforcement a priority by ensuring all workers receive equal protection.
Understanding the EEOC’s priorities may be helpful for employers. Employers may choose to evaluate their policies, practices, and workplace programs with a view toward these priorities.