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Employers May Need to Submit EEO-1 Pay Data As Early As May 31, 2019, Although the EEOC is Advocating for a Later Deadline of September 30, 2019

4/15/19

By: Paige Pembrook

Last month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia reinstated the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rule requiring employers to report pay information by race, ethnicity and sex with their EEO-1 Report. However, employers still wait for an answer on when they will have to actually file the pay data. If employee advocacy groups have their way, it could be as soon as May 31, 2019. However, the EEOC is pushing for later deadline of September 30, 2019.
The EEO-1 Report is mandatory for businesses with at least 100 employees and federal contractors with at least 50 employees and a federal government contract of $50,000. Such employers must report the number of employees who work for the business by job category, race, sex, and ethnicity on the EEO-1 Report.
In 2016, the EEOC adopted additional EEO-1 pay data collection requirements commanding employers to report employee wages and hours worked by race, ethnicity and sex. In 2017, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stayed the pay data requirements. Employee advocacy groups sued to challenge the stay on the basis that the OMB provided inadequate reasoning to support its decision.
On March 4, 2019, the U.S. District Court Judge agreed with the employee advocates and ordered, “the previous approval of the revised EEO-1 form shall be in effect,” including the pay data collection requirements. (National Women’s Law Center v. Office of Management and Budget, No. 17-cv-2458). The Judge also ordered the EEOC to describe when and how it will comply with the order lifting the stay on the EEO-1 pay data collection.
Employers must be aware that the ruling could take immediate effect and require employers to submit pay data as early as May 31, 2019, along with the other 2018 EEO-1 information. However, the EEOC is pushing for a later deadline of September 30, 2019, to allow employers more time to collect the required data.
On April 3, 2019, the EEOC filed court documents proposing that employers be required to submit pay data to the agency by September 30, 2019. The EEOC’s filing also proposed that employers only be required to submit pay data for 2018, rather than 2017 and 2018, and describes the EEOC’s plan to use a data and analytics contractor to develop a new reporting program to collect the data.
On April 8, 2019, the employee advocacy groups told the judge that they want the EEOC to collect employers’ pay data by the same May 31, 2019, deadline that employers must submit other EEO-1 information or show why that is impossible.
After a hearing on April 16, 2019, the Judge will have the final say on the deadline. FMG will continue to watch the EEO-1 Report developments and provide updates to keep employers informed. In the meanwhile, employers should prepare to collect and report the required pay data as soon as possible.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Paige Pembrook at ppembrook@fmglaw.com.