The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released an updated deadline for employers to submit their demographic data. The EEO-1 Component 1 data collection for 2022 will start on Oct. 31, and the deadline for employers to file their EEO-1 reports is Dec. 5.
All private employers that have at least 100 employees are required to file the EEO-1 form annually, detailing the racial, ethnic and gender composition of their workforce by specific job categories.
Likewise, federal government contractors and first-tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and at least $50,000 in contracts must file EEO-1 reports. State and local governments and public school systems are exempt.
We’ve collected a group of articles on the news from SHRM Online and other trusted news sources.
More Information to Come
The EEOC posted the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Instruction Booklet for employers on Sept. 6. The EEOC also anticipates posting the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Data File Upload Specifications for employers on Sept. 13.
Streamlining the Process
The announced schedule is a significant departure from the filing cycle over the last few years with deadlines in May or June. The 2022 EEO-1 filing process will streamline the reporting structure, which should make the filings easier for employers to prepare.
Form Approved for One Year
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extended approval of the EEO-1 form for one year only. The EEOC had requested a three-year approval. The one-year OMB approval paves the way for the EEOC to move forward with the latest collection of EEO-1 reports this fall, but the future format of EEO-1 reporting is now unclear.
The primary change associated with the newly approved EEO-1 form is the elimination of Type 6 reports. Type 6 reports were used by only a small number of employers. These reports allowed an employer to provide summary data for a facility of less than 50 people. The new EEO-1 report will require employers to provide demographic data for all facilities, regardless of their size.
Potential Changes to Race Categories
Currently, the categories for race on the EEO-1 form are white, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, or two or more races. Hispanic or Latino is categorized as an ethnicity, not a race, on the form.
Some comments in court documents in the Supreme Court’s recent affirmative action case suggested the race categories in the EEO-1 form are overly broad, so they might be revised in the future. EEOC spokesman Victor Chen confirmed that the race categories won’t change for the 2022 data collection.
“While the EEOC has participated in the Interagency Technical Working Group (ITWG) that’s looking at revising the race and ethnicity categories, the ITWG is expected to complete their revisions next year by summer 2024,” said Rachel See, an attorney with Seyfarth in Washington, D.C.
Supporting Enforcement Efforts
The purpose of collecting the demographic data is to support enforcement actions, facilitate research on employment patterns, and encourage self-assessment by employers, according to the EEOC. Some companies voluntarily go a step further and publicly release their demographic information to enhance their diversity efforts or improve accountability.
Employees can fill out a voluntary self-identification form to help employers collect the demographic information that needs to be submitted with the EEO-1. Employers can use the data to inform their ongoing diversity efforts, comparing one year to the next.
The EEO-1 form does not include pay data.
Pay Data Collection Suspended
In 2017, the EEOC began requiring employers to submit information on employees’ pay, along with demographics, to enhance the agency’s efforts to sue for pay discrimination, but it halted this collection in 2019 following employer complaints about the collection of pay data being burdensome. The EEOC may decide to resume collecting pay data, but it has not committed to doing so yet.
