HR Policy Weighs in Against Proposed EEO-1 Pay Report

Employment Law, Inclusion and Diversity

This week, the Association filed comments recommending the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission withdraw its proposed changes to the EEO-1 report that would require employers to submit annual pay and hours data, and result in the collection of a considerable amount of misleading data that will be used by the EEOC and OFCCP to help target enforcement.  The proposed changes to the EEO-1 would require employers to report the number of employees and the number of hours worked by race, ethnicity and gender from within 12 prescribed pay bands for each of the 10 EEO-1 job categories.  HR Policy's comments strongly disagreed with the EEOC's claims that it would help the agency:

• Assess complaints of discrimination;
• More effectively focus agency investigations; and
• Encourage employers to self-monitor or help employers analyze and evaluate their pay practices.

The comments also note that if the EEOC decides to proceed with the rulemaking it must conduct a pilot test measuring the effectiveness of the proposed EEO-1 on the federal government, and it should permit employers to file EEO-1 reports on a calendar year basis with a May 31 reporting deadline.  The EEOC is expected to publish a final rule this summer, and the first reports could be due as early as September 30, 2017.