Employers Must Submit EEO-1 Pay Data for Both 2017 and 2018 by September 30, 2019
The EEOC has decided that employers with 100 or more employees must submit pay data required by its revised EEO-1 form for both 2017 and 2018 by September 30, 2019.
Background on the pay data collection proposal. As we recently reported in our April 2019 E-Update, the EEOC had proposed to revise its EEO-1 form to add the collection of pay data (Component 2) to the demographic data (Component 1) already required by the form. Information about 2017 pay data would have been collected during the 2018 reporting period, while information about 2018 pay data would have been collected during the current 2019 reporting period.
This new requirement had been placed on hold by the Office of Management and Budget, which has the responsibility of reviewing all significant regulatory actions before they take effect. Litigation ensued, however, with the National Women’s Law Center and other groups suing to enforce the implementation of the revised EEO-1 form. A federal court found the OMB’s stay to be illegal and ordered the revised EEO-1 form to take effect and the EEOC to collect the required pay data for 2018 by September 30, 2019. The court also ordered the EEOC to announce by May 3, 2019 whether it would also collect the 2017 pay data by that date, or instead collect 2019 pay data during the 2020 reporting period.
The EEOC’s New Rule. The EEOC has now announced on its website and has now filed a rule, intended for publication in the Federal Register on May 3, 2019, stating that it will collect the 2017 pay data by September 30, 2019, along with the 2018 data. The EEOC also states that collection will begin in mid-July, and will inform filers of the precise date that the online survey will be available as soon as possible.
What will need to be submitted? The new Component 2 data that will need to be submitted is aggregated data for 2017 and 2018 on pay and hours worked, broken down into 12 pay bands across 10 job categories, by the same racial, ethnic, and sex groups used for the existing demographic data. This data will be drawn from one single payroll period of the employer’s choosing occurring between October 1 and December 31 of each reporting year.
What now? The reporting period for Component 1 is currently open until May 31, 2019, and employers with 100 or more employees, as well as federal contractors and subcontractors with 50 or more employees, must submit the traditional demographic data through the EEOC’s online survey by that date. Employers may request an extension until June 14, 2019; extensions beyond that date will require review by the EEOC.
As for Component 2, the survey will open in mid-July with the EEOC announcing the exact date sometime soon. Employers with 100 or more employees (but not smaller federal contractors and subcontractors with fewer than that number of employees) will need to be prepared to submit pay data for both 2017 and 2018 by September 30, 2019. The EEOC has previously stated that it will also provide two-week extensions on this date. We will keep you posted as soon as the EEOC provides further information on when the Component 2 survey will open.
