Discrimination Complaint Cost Calculator

This calculator estimates the potential value and timeline of an employment discrimination claim by combining back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages, with a built-in split for age discrimination claims that behave differently under federal law. Back pay (monthly salary times months of lost wages) and front pay (monthly salary times expected future months without reinstatement) are the mechanical baseline. For Title VII claims — race, sex, religion, national origin, and disability under the ADA in this tool's framing — compensatory damages for emotional distress and punitive damages are each calculated from evidence strength (circumstantial, moderate direct, strong direct, or pattern-and-practice) and then capped by the real statutory Title VII combined caps, scaling with employer size from $50,000 (15-100 employees) up to $300,000 (501+). Age discrimination under the ADEA is handled differently: the calculator zeroes out compensatory and punitive damages, since the ADEA does not permit them, and instead adds a liquidated-damages line equal to back pay when evidence strength suggests a willful violation.

That line stacks on top of the back pay already counted, so a willful ADEA violation nets out to double back pay overall — matching the statute's actual doubling remedy — even though the liquidated-damages line itself is one times back pay, not two. Estimated settlement value scales with evidence strength from 40% to 70% of total damages, reflecting how most EEOC-adjacent cases resolve short of trial; the timeline estimate (roughly 10 months of EEOC investigation plus 12-18 months of litigation) reflects typical pacing, not a deadline. One hard legal fact regardless of what the calculator says: you generally must file an EEOC charge within 180 or 300 days of the act before suing in federal court, and missing that window can bar the claim entirely no matter how strong the facts are.