EEOC REVISES EMPLOYER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Jul 14, 2016 | Employment Law

On July 14, 2016, the EEOC published its revised proposal to collect W-2 income and hours-worked data as part of its annual Employer Information Reporting (“EEO-1”) process. Since 1966, the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) have utilized the EEO-1 report to track employee gender and racial/ethnic data across a number of basic job categories. The new pay data proposal seeks to collect from private employers and federal contractors pay data by sex, race, ethnicity, job category and across 12 “pay bands”. According to the EEOC’s Q&A’s, the addition of pay data information will help it and OFCCP combat pay discrimination and identify pay disparities that warrant further investigation.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE EEO-1 REPORT? The purpose of the EEO-1 report is to encourage employer compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to identify patterns of discriminatory practices within industries, job categories, and geographic areas and to support civil rights enforcement. Moreover, the OFCCP uses EEO-1 data to determine which company establishments to select for compliance reviews and to identify patterns of systemic discrimination.

WHAT COMPANIES MUST FILE AN EEO-1 REPORT? All companies that meet the following criteria are required to file the EEO-1 report annually:

  • Companies subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, with 100 or more employees; or
  • Companies subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, with fewer than 100 employees if the company is owned by or corporately affiliated with another company and the entire enterprise employs a total of 100 or more employees; or
  • Federal government prime contractors or first-tier subcontractors subject to Executive Order 11246, as amended, with 50 or more employees and a prime contract or first-tier subcontract amounting to $50,000 or more.

WHEN DO THE NEW REPORTING REQUIREMENTS GO INTO EFFECT?

  • 2016 Filing Deadline (without pay data): September 30, 2016.
  • 2017 Filing Deadline (with pay data): March 31, 2018. The EEOC’s revised proposal changes the EEO-1 filing deadline to March 31 of each year. Employers will, therefore, have until March 31, 2018, to submit their 2017 EEO-1 reports, which must contain pay data.

WHAT ARE “PAY BANDS”? For each of the EEO-1 job categories, the proposed EEO-1 would have 12 pay bands, which are used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupation Employment Statistics survey. Employers would tabulate and report the number of employees whose W-2 earnings for the prior 12 months fell within each pay band:

  1. $19,239 and under;
  2. $19,240 – $24,439;
  3. $24,440 – $30,679;
  4. $30,680 – $38,999;
  5. $39,000 – $49,919;
  6. $49,920 – $62,919;
  7. $62,920 – $80,079;
  8. $80,080 – $101,919;
  9. $101,920 – $128,959;
  10. $128,960 – $163,799;
  11. $163,800 – $207,999; and
  12. $208,000 and over.