Contents

Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972

Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972

Long title	An act to further promote equal employment opportunities for American workers
Enacted by	the 92nd United States Congress
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 92–261
Statutes at Large	86 Stat. 103
Codification
U.S.C. sections amended	42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e–2000e-8 5 U.S.C. § 5108
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 1746 by Augustus Hawkins (D–CA) Passed the House on September 16, 1971 (285–106) Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on March 24, 1972
United States Supreme Court cases
Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535 (1974)

The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 is a United States federal law 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 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.^[1][2] It also required employers to make reasonable accommodation for the religious practices of employees.^[3]

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.^[4] 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 (R-AZ), and John C. Stennis (D-MS), expressed concern for the impact on small businesses.^[5] (During the debate on the initial version of Title VII in 1964, Cotton in particular had proposed increasing the threshold to 100 employees).^[6] Despite support for the eight-employee threshold from other senators such as Jacob Javits (R-NY), the Senate amended the threshold to fifteen, and the House subsequently agreed in conference.^[7] The fifteen-employee threshold remains in place as of 2020.^[8]

A 1998 study based on Current Population Survey 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.^[4] 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.^[9]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Public Law 92-261

• Lewinsohn, Thomas F. (1974). "Equal Employment Opportunity Through Affirmative Action". The American Review of Public Administration. 8 (1): 71. doi:10.1177/027507407400800111. S2CID 153774471.
• Richard Nixon's signing statement about the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, from the American Presidency Project

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