EEOC updates its mandatory EEO poster

On October 19, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the replacement of its mandatory “EEO is the Law” poster with a new one titled, “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal.” At long last, the revisions incorporate information from the temporary supplement to the “EEO is the Law” poster, which federal contractors have had to post since 2015. Now employers covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (generally, employers with at least 15 employees) must display page 1 of the poster, while employers with federal contracts must display both pages.

The new poster is available in a variety of formats and languages on the EEOC poster webpage, with more translations to be released in the future. The revised poster uses bullet points instead of paragraphs and includes the following new information:

• Harassment on the basis of a protected status is a type of illegal discrimination;
• Sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and related conditions, as well as discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity;
• A QR code for easy access to the EEOC’s webpage on how to file a discrimination charge; and
• Information about equal pay discrimination for federal contractors.

Tips: Be sure your poster has a revision date of 10/20/2022 in the bottom right corner of the second page. An undated version was briefly posted on October 19, 2022, and then taken down.

The EEOC’s announcement didn’t specify how quickly employers should swap out their old posters in favor of the new one. We recommend doing so as soon as you reasonably can. The poster must be prominently displayed at your workplace in a place where applicants and employees can see it. The EEOC encourages employers to supplement the physical posting with a conspicuous digital posting. For employees who don’t come onsite regularly, the digital posting may be the only posting. Emailing the new poster to employees is okay, but you shouldn’t rely on email alone because the poster is supposed to be available at any time for an employee to review.

For a list of other required workplace postings, see our Legal Guide, Mandatory Posters. Also, keep in mind that the Labor Law Center offers discounted rates to Vigilant members for laminated all-in-one employment posters. An order form is available on our member website. Updated federal all-in-one posters containing the revised EEOC poster are expected to be available by late November. You can also download individual posters by visiting our member website and accessing Additional Resources—Government Posters.