Stay Issued for Pay Data Reporting Aspects of EEO-1 Form

In the December 2016 edition of the Insights and Solutions newsletter, we advised that employers with 100 or more employees will be required to include earnings data and actual hours worked in their annual EEO-1 report. The first set of reports containing this additional information was originally due to be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by March 31, 2018.

On August 29, 2017, Acting Director of the EEOC Vicki Lipnic announced  that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued an indefinite stay of the employer pay data collection aspects of the EEO-1 form.  The pay data reporting obligations, included in the revised EEO-1 form as of September 29, 2016, included new requests for wage and hour data for employees, broken down by race/ethnicity and gender. 

The OMB explained that its decision to stay the pay data collection aspects of the EEO-1 form was due, in part, to the fact that the EEOC’s: (1) data file specifications for employers to use in submitting the new report was not published in the Federal Register, thereby denying the public the opportunity to comment on this aspect of the specifications; and (2) burden estimates for the new report did not take the specifications in to account.  The OMB further advised that there is some concern that portions of the new report “lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.”

Although the pay data reporting aspects have been stayed, employers are expected to comply with their EEO-1 filing requirements for the 2017 reporting year.  Covered employers must file by March 31, 2018, the previously approved EEO-1 form, which collects data on race, ethnicity and gender by occupational categories. 

Coverage:  Employers with 100 or more employees.

Effective:  Currently in effect.