EEOC Issues Updated Equal Pay Data Report

Employee Relations, Employment Law, Inclusion and Diversity

This week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published its final proposed changes to the new EEO-1 form, which will require all large employers to annually submit pay data by gender and race for ten different job categories.  Employers' first report with pay data will not be due until March 31, 2018.  Under  the final proposal, which is subject to another 30-day public comment period, large employers will have to submit the total number of employees in the U.S. and their total number of hours worked for 12 different pay bands, by gender, race and ethnicity, for each of the ten EEO-1 job categories for each establishment and the headquarters.  For FLSA-exempt salaried employees, employers can either assume 40 hours per week for full-time exempt employees, or use actual hours worked if "accurate records" are maintained.  Under the final proposal, employers will count their employees during a new "snapshot" pay period between October 1 and December 31 and will use the W-2 income and total hours worked for these employees for the entire calendar year when filing the new report.  According to the EEOC, the new EEO-1 data will be used:

• By agency personnel who conduct complaint intakes to "issue spot" potential pay discrimination;
• To support the agency's data analysis at the early stages of an investigation, using statistical tests to identify significant disparities in reported pay; and
• To publish periodic reports on pay disparities by race, sex, industry, occupational groupings, and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

The public comment period runs until August 15, 2016, during which time the Association intends to file comments along similar lines as those we have filed previously on the proposal.