The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accepted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s proposal to collect 2018 pay data from employers by September 30, 2019, and ordered the commission to collect a second year of pay data—either from 2017 or 2019—at some point in the future.
Background: In March, the District Court reinstated the EEOC's annual pay data collection requirement that was put in place at the end of the Obama administration but suspended by the Trump administration in 2017 before it could be implemented. The reinstated pay data report will require employers to report the total number of employees and total number of hours worked for 12 different pay bands (pay ranges), 10 different EEO-1 job categories, and 14 different gender and race/ethnicity groups. Since March, the question before the court has been when to begin collecting the pay data. That decision came down yesterday.
Employers should prepare to submit 2018 pay data beginning this summer, but no later than September 30, 2019. It is unclear at this point when the EEOC will be ready to begin collecting the data, but it has previously told the court it could be as soon as July 30, 2019.
The EEOC has until May 3 to decide whether employers will have to submit either 2017 or 2019 pay data at some point in the future. In addition, the Commission has until April 29 to put a statement on its website informing employers of the court’s decision and must provide implementation updates to the court every 21 days.
Double implementation costs for employers? On April 3, the EEOC told the court that in order to collect pay data this year, it will have to use a third-party outside contractor to develop a system that would only be used "one time for the collection of 2018 data," and that the system would not be used after the EEOC transitions to its data collection process.
Outlook: Although DOJ has until May 4 to appeal the court’s decision, it is unclear at this point whether it will. It is also unclear if, or when, the Senate will confirm Janet Dhillon to be EEOC Chair, or even if that would have any impact on the pay data collection ordered by the court. We will continue to update you as events develop regarding this volatile regulatory situation.
