EEO-1 Reports Due Next Week!

Come March 31st larger employers, as well as some smaller employers with government contracts, will need to have completed and filed their EEO-1 reports with the EEOC.  No longer is preparing and filing the EEO-1 report a chore for HR professionals to complete in September. Now it’s a chore to complete in March, though no real substantive changes to the report itself were made.  Government in action! 

DO YOU NEED TO FILE THE EEO-1?

It depends on two things: (1) how many employees you have and (2) whether you have a contract with the federal government.  To the first point, employers with 100+ employees must prepare and file the EEO-1 report annually.  To the second, if your company has a prime or first-tier subcontract with the federal government in an amount of $50,000 or more, and has at least 50 employees, then you need to prepare and file the EEO-1 report as well. 

ARE YOU NEW TO EEO-1s?         

Congratulations!  You will enjoy preparing these reports annually and scrambling to figure out the ethnicity of your workforce for employees who do not voluntarily submit the self-identification form.  If you have not already you should create a login at the EEO-1 portal page at https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/index.cfm. There you will find login information, survey information and general information on your responsibilities in completing and submitting the form to the government.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PAY DATA REQUIREMENT?

In short, the Trump administration happened.  One of the actions the Obama administration put into motion in its second term was to move the EEO-1 reporting date to March 31 so that employers could capture their W-2 data from the previous year and report wages, cross-referencing gender, race and ethnicity.  The requirement of reporting wage data was part of the Obama administration’s push for gender and racial pay equality in the workplace.  In August 2017, however, the White House Office of Management and Budget stayed the implementation pending review.  That review will likely last long enough for the EEOC to reconsider the pay reporting regulation and dispense with it.      

Thompson Coe and myHRgenius Tip of the Week is not intended as a solicitation, does not constitute legal advice, and does not establish an attorney-client relationship.