U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Overview
The EEOC's role in covered federal discrimination charges.
Workplace records
A workplace problem needs the right agency record
GuideWeSpeakLaw EditorialUpdated August 24, 2026Sources reviewed
Discrimination, pay and leave questions can involve different laws and different agencies. Identify the issue, preserve the underlying records and check the agency that actually administers the law.
Official record
Primary sources
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Laws
The official distinction between EEOC-enforced laws and other workplace laws.
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
Worker Rights
The federal route for pay, hours, leave and other WHD-administered programs.
Name the issue before choosing the agency
The EEOC enforces specified federal workplace discrimination laws and investigates charges against employers covered by those laws. Its law index also identifies other employment and civil-rights laws that the EEOC does not primarily enforce—or does not enforce at all.
A pay, hours, recordkeeping, child-labor or family-and-medical-leave question may instead point to the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division. The label ‘employment law’ is too broad to tell you which record matters.
Preserve what happened in ordinary language
Keep the documents that show the events: schedules, pay statements, policies, messages, evaluations and any agency or employer correspondence. Note when each item was created and who sent it. Preserve originals and avoid changing their contents.
Describe what the record shows without jumping to a legal conclusion. An agency charge contains allegations. An investigation, settlement, dismissal or court order is a different event and should be identified by its own document and date.
Check coverage and timing at the source
The EEOC says its authority extends to charges against employers covered by the laws it enforces. The Wage and Hour Division presents separate worker resources for the programs it administers. Neither agency name alone proves that a particular rule applies.
Use the official agency page for the precise issue and current instructions. Do not borrow a time limit, coverage rule or remedy from a different law, state or type of claim.
Corrections
Updated August 24, 2026. No corrections are recorded.