New EEO-1 Pay Reporting Requirements Stayed Indefinitely

Obligation to Report Original Component Stands

We previously told you about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (“EEOC”) January 2016 announcement of its proposal to revise the Employer Information Report (“EEO-1 Report”) to require all employers with more than 100 employees to include summary pay data in their EEO-1 Reports. In the wake of that announcement, the proposed reporting requirements faced opposition from employers who articulated concerns that the additional required pay data is burdensome to collect and provides limited value or insight into accurately identifying pay discrimination. On August, 29, 2017, the Trump Administration addressed these concerns by effectively blocking the new reporting requirements.

Specifically, on August 29, 2017, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) informed the EEOC via memorandum that, in accordance with OMB’s authority under the Paperwork Reduction Act (“PRA”), it is initiating “a review and immediate stay of the effectiveness of the pay data collection aspects” of the commission’s EEO-1 form that was revised on September 29, 2016. This decision is welcomed by many, including the acting chair of the EEOC, Victoria A. Lipnic, who at the recent National Industry Liaison Group Conference in San Antonio, Texas, stated her opinion that, at the very least, the implementation should be delayed in order to provide the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs further opportunity to review the burdens surrounding the implementation.

Notably, the EEOC’s press release confirms that the current EEO-1 reporting requirements, which collect data on race, ethnicity, and gender by occupational category, are still in place. Accordingly, employers must comply with these components of the earlier approved EEO-1 form by the previously set filing date of March 31, 2018.