Source: Newsday
On March 23, 2003 Newsday reported that "in the midst of the weak U.S. economy and in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the EEOC has seen a spike in workplace bias complaints nationwide - but particularly in the categories of age and religious discrimination, which have skyrocketed... Although the filing of a complaint does not necessarily mean that anti-bias laws have been violated, age discrimination cases rose 14.5 percent in 2002 to nearly 20,000 nationwide compared with the preceding year. Some experts say the increase indicates that older workers believe employers are using hard economic times as an excuse to get rid of them because they are more costly... Religious-discrimination complaints rose 21 percent in the same period. Complaints from Muslims more than doubled, to 719 last year from 328 in 2001... And with the outbreak of the war in Iraq, some experts expect more anti-Muslim scenarios."