The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released an updated EEO-1 reporting form in August of 2016, which requires covered employers to provide employee pay data beginning in March 2018. The employer pay data was intended to provide information that would improve EEOC investigations into pay discrimination based on gender, race and ethnicity.
The Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) has now initiated a review which will delay the implementation of this new reporting requirement. In response, the EEOC announced that the previously approved EEO-1 form which collects data by occupational category will remain in effect. Employers, therefore, are not required to include employee pay data on their EEO-1 Forms, and should use the earlier approved EEO-1 (Component 1).
This delay should not be taken as a signal that pay equity is no longer a concern. The EEOC’s current strategic enforcement plan continues to focus on gender-based pay equity. Therefore, as a practical matter, employers should continue to focus on pay equity in the workplace. Those employers who have started the process of collecting employee pay data should consider completing the data collection, and analyzing it to determine if any pay-equity discrepancies exist in the workplace. Findings and corrective actions, if required, should be carefully documented in the event of a governmental investigation or private legal action.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact David Gabor.
