The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told employees Tuesday it may furlough its entire staff for one day next month because of a budget shortfall.

In an agency-wide July 30 memo reviewed by HR Dive, EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows told commission employees that the agency has been under significant spending constraints due to increased costs. She specifically pointed to employee compensation and benefits: Federal employees received a 5.2% pay increase for fiscal year 2024, but Congress declined to add to the agency’s budget, leaving the increase unfunded.

More than 76% of EEOC’s budget is allocated to compensation and benefits, the commission told HR Dive in a statement on Wednesday. The agency’s daily payroll is an estimated $1.3 million. 

The agency made broad cuts that included a hiring freeze, Sheila Clark, the agency’s deputy chief human capital officer, said in a separate memo reviewed by HR Dive. Burrows’ memo said the agency filled only a handful of critical positions this fiscal year but is still facing a shortfall.

“Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to notice up to eight hours of furlough for all employees on Friday, August 30, 2024,” Burrows said. The advance notice is required by an agreement with the employees’ union.

The chair said EEOC will continue to search for additional savings that could allow it to avoid the furlough or cut it to a half day. 

But, according to Clark’s memo, the agency “currently anticipate[s] expenditures to cover necessary agency operating costs will be in excess of our authorized budget.”

The furlough, if undertaken, could exempt or be shorter for some employees, including:

• Those on an assignment not requiring agency funds.
• Those in a position of crucial importance, such as political appointees.
• Those in part-time positions.

Burrows said she fully appreciates that the furlough may cause difficulty for employees and their families.

The employees’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, said the agency has been underfunded for decades and now both EEOC employees and workers facing discrimination on the job will bear the brunt of that situation.

“AFGE is calling on Congress to provide the agency with the resources it needs to fund its operations and provide the public with the services they deserve,” AFGE Council 216 President Rachel Shonfield told HR Dive in a statement.

“There is also a practical step that the agency can take, which is strategically increasing remote work flexibility to reduce rent spending — this is a cost saving measure our union has urged the agency to take,” Shonfield continued.

The potential furlough comes at a time when EEOC — which enforces federal nondiscrimination laws — already receives more charges that it can handle in a year. The result has been a long-running backlog.

The agency has at times made progress against its charge inventory but has on multiple occasions drawn the ire of lawmakers. Republican leaders of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, for example, last year called the backlog “alarming” and urged Burrows to explain what they deemed “subpar performance.”