More than $420 million was collected for workers last year through the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC got more than 79,000 discrimination complaints against private employers and state and local governments last year. That¹s down from the all-time high number of more than 85,000 complaints in 2002. The $420 million is the highest amount of money ever recovered for workers in discrimination cases in a single year by the EEOC. The federal agency says while progress has been made in ending employment discrimination, much work remains to really deliver on the promise of equal employment opportunity for all American workers. Race and sex discrimination cases were the most numerous ­ race accounted for more than 27,000 complaints, sex discrimination in employment was cited in over 24,000 cases last year. The new budget proposed by President Bush slightly increases the budget for the EEOC to a total of a little over $331 million a year.