EEOC Guidance

The EEOC’s guidance provides the Commission’s interpretations of the laws enforced by the agency. EEOC guidance draws from the text of the statute/s, the legislative history, prior Commission policy and decisions, case law, and other legal sources. EEOC guidance documents are approved by a majority vote of the Commission.

The EEOC has published its guidance as part of Volume II of an original “Compliance Manual” (CM, first issued in 1979), and a “New Compliance Manual” (first issued in 2000). Generally, each CM section addresses a broad area of the law, while “Enforcement Guidance” “Policy Guidance” and other guidance, which is filed behind or appended to the relevant CM section, provides more detail about a narrower subject. In this interactive table, the older CM sections and related documents are identified by 3-digit numbers ranging from 601 through 902, while the New CM sections are identified by 1 or 2-digit numbers ranging from 2 through 15. In some instances, while an underlying CM section may have been superceded, documents that originally were filed behind or appended to a superceded document remain in force. All of the materials provided in this table remain in effect.