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07/22/2025

The EEOC Sent Us a Letter About Our DEI Programs

Source: HR Dive, July 9, 2025

Our company received a letter from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asking us to answer questions about our diversity, equity and inclusion programs. How should we respond?

The idea that a federal agency would make such a request became all too real in March, when EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas sent letters to 20 large law firms asking for details on aspects of their diversity clerkship programs, their hiring and pay practices and their use of affinity groups, just to name a few.

If employers find themselves on the receiving end of a similar EEOC-led inquiry, they might want to share the letter with legal counsel — and, depending on the scope of the request, ask the issuing EEOC agent about the legal basis of the request, Jason Tremblay, partner at Saul Ewing, said in an email.

That’s because the EEOC’s authority to issue such letters to private companies is itself debatable, Tremblay said. Former Democratic EEOC officials said as much in a message to Lucas shortly after news of the letters, noting that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act “does not authorize the sort of public demand for information” requested by Lucas.

Nonetheless, the agency’s current leadership maintains that its requests do fall within its investigatory authority, and a company’s failure to answer could result in EEOC initiating a formal investigation, said Tremblay.

“In light of the foregoing, it is typically never a good tactic to simply ignore a governmental agency notice or request, including any request for DEI policy or practice information from the EEOC,” he continued.

By contacting the EEOC agent, an employer may have a legitimate basis to object to the request or negotiate in order to reduce its scope, Tremblay said.

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