For many years, employers with more than 100 employees have been required to report the sexual and racial makeup of their workforces within designated categories of workers. Consistent with a national trend toward pay equity, during the Obama Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) revised its EEO-1 form to include a requirement to report pay data in addition to job group data. When the new administration took over, the Office of Management and Budget froze the new requirements. Several groups, including the National Women's Law Center, sued, contending that the government did not properly justify its decision to freeze the new requirements. On March 4, 2019, a federal court judge in the District of Columbia vacated the stay and restored the EEOC's pay data collection requirements. Although there is a possibility of an appeal, no announcement has been made as to whether the requirements must be met by the original deadline of May 31, 2019.
Under the new requirements, employers must report the racial and gender makeup of employees in each job category (executive, professional, sales, etc.) within 12 pay ranges, for each of the company's locations. The expanded form may reach 10 pages, while the previous form was only one page.
Many employers worry about the new requirements as the data is likely to be among the first items sought in any discrimination investigations or litigation. The data also may be sought by activist groups, although the EEOC says it will keep the information confidential.
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