New EEOC General Counsel calls bias damages caps ‘unacceptable’

In a recent interview, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) General Counsel Karla Gilbride argued the damage limitations on employees’ recovery under federal employment discrimination laws are “morally unacceptable.” Currently, total compensatory and punitive damages are capped for the largest companies at $300,000. Congress established the limits when it passed the 1991 revision to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which added jury trials as well as compensatory and punitive damages. Gilbride believes the 1991 limits are out of step with inflation and encourage employers to consider discrimination as just the cost of doing business.

In a number of recent discrimination verdicts, the caps have reduced the verdicts to a fraction of their original amount:

• A $36M jury verdict for a deaf applicant for a truck driving position was reduced to $335,000 including back pay.
• A private plaintiff’s $366M race verdict against FedEx was reduced to $249,000.

Recently, U.S. House lawmakers have begun to have long-overdue conversations about raising the 1991 damage caps, but it’s unlikely the caps will be raised this year.

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