Postponement of the EEO-1 Reporting Requirements

Background:

On August 29, 2017, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) initiated an immediate and indefinite postponement of the pay/hours data collection aspects of the new EEO-1 form (also known as “Component 2” of the report) that was approved on September 29, 2016. The OMB will be conducting a review of the pay/hours data collection in Component 2 of the report to determine whether or not the data collection violates the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), among other requirements.

Details of the Change:

Before the postponement became effective, the EEO-1 report approved on September 29, 2016required employers to report employee data in two components:

Component 1:

• Sex and ethnicity or race data (no change to previous requirements).
• Using a new “workforce snapshot period” between October 1 and December 31.

Component 2:

• Summary pay data about the total number of full and part-time employees during the reporting year in each of 12 pay bands listed for each EEO-1 Job Category. Employers were required to use earnings reported in Box 1 of the W-2 Form.
• Aggregate hours worked data about the number of hours worked that year by all the employees accounted for in each pay band.

Component 2:

Victoria Lipnic, the acting Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), issued a statement on August 29, 2017, about what employers should do for the upcoming reporting deadline:

• The previously approved EEO-1 form which collects data on race, ethnicity and gender by occupational category will remain in effect. Employers should plan to comply with the earlier approved EEO-1 (Component 1) by the previously set filing date of March 2018.

For More Information:

The EEOC is expected to issue more formal guidance in advance of the upcoming March 2018 reporting deadline. For up to date information about the EEO-1 Report, you can visit the EEOC website.