White House Suspends Pay Data Portion of EEO-1

Employers who were required to file pay and demographic data as part of a revised EEO-1 have been given a reprieve. The EEOC, under direction by the White House Office of Management and Budget, has suspended indefinitely the requirement to file the pay data portion.

Sometimes referred to as “Component 2,” the pay data was ordered a year ago by the EEOC as part of a government effort to address pay equality issues by race, ethnicity and gender. Most private employers with 100 or more employees and certain federal contractors were to report W-2 information and hours worked for all employees by race, ethnicity and sex within 12 pay ranges.

In addition, the EEOC changed the data collection period for reporting to Oct. 1 – Dec. 31, and moved the filing deadline for 2017 from the end of September to March 31, 2018.

The pay requirement was opposed by business groups as well as SHRM. They objected to the burden collecting and organizing that much information would place on HR and finance staffs, as well as raising the concern that relying on wage data would provide an incomplete picture.

Late yesterday, EEOC Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic announced the OMB ordered stay, pending its review of the effectiveness of the pay data collection.

While employers appear to be relieved for now from collecting and reporting pay data, they are still obliged to report the same workforce demographic data as in previous years. Employers have until the end of March 2018 to file their EEO-1.