Your point about "getting sued by the EEOC" is very well taken and has important implications not recognized in many of these comments. First, the vast, vast majority of federal anti-discrimination lawsuits are brought by individuals, not the EEOC. Typically, employment defense lawyers will handle a handful of EEOC-plaintiff cases in their careers but hundreds of single- and multi-plaintiff cases. Second, almost all states have anti-discrimination laws modeled on Title VII, and most cover much smaller companies. In some states (California, for example), the state laws and state court system are so much more favorable to plaintiffs that plaintiff-side employment lawyers will actively *avoid" pleading claims under Title VII (or other federal laws) and do what they can to avoid litigating in federal court. Between the two categories - federal lawsuits brought by individuals (not the EEOC) and state lawsuits not involving the EEOC at all - we're talking thousands upon thousands of lawsuits. That is where the "systemic" effects of these laws are, not in the minuscule fraction of cases actually brought by the EEOC.
Your point about "getting sued by the EEOC" is very well taken and has important implications not recognized in many of these comments. First, the vast, vast majority of federal anti-discrimination lawsuits are brought by individuals, not the EEOC. Typically, employment defense lawyers will handle a handful of EEOC-plaintiff cases in their careers but hundreds of single- and multi-plaintiff cases. Second, almost all states have anti-discrimination laws modeled on Title VII, and most cover much smaller companies. In some states (California, for example), the state laws and state court system are so much more favorable to plaintiffs that plaintiff-side employment lawyers will actively *avoid" pleading claims under Title VII (or other federal laws) and do what they can to avoid litigating in federal court. Between the two categories - federal lawsuits brought by individuals (not the EEOC) and state lawsuits not involving the EEOC at all - we're talking thousands upon thousands of lawsuits. That is where the "systemic" effects of these laws are, not in the minuscule fraction of cases actually brought by the EEOC.