On August 29, 2017, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) issued a memo to the EEOC advising that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is initiating a review and an immediate stay of the effectiveness of those aspects of the EEO-1 form that were revised on September 29, 2016. Those revisions included new requirements for employers with 100 or more employees (and for employers who are federal contractors with 50 or more employees) to provide data on the wages and hours worked by their employees. The OIRA’s memo made clear that the EEOC may continue to use the previously approved EEO-1 form to collect data from covered employers on the race/ethnicity and gender of their employees during the review and stay period.
The memo explained that, among other things, the OMB is concerned that some aspects of the requirement to collect wage and hour information, lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.
Following receipt of the OIRA’s memo, the EEOC immediately issued a statement that advised covered employers that the previously approved EEO-1 form which collects data on race, ethnicity and gender by occupational category will remain in effect, and that “[e]mployers should plan to comply with the earlier approved EEO-1 (Component 1) by the previously set filing date of March 2018.” Despite this current stay in the requirement to report pay data, the EEOC said that it remains committed to strong enforcement of federal equal pay laws and hopes the OMB’s decision “…will prompt a discussion of other more effective solutions to encourage employers to review their compensation practices to ensure equal pay and close the wage gap.”
The Labor & Employment attorneys at Weintraub Tobin will continue to follow the OMB’s review process and EEO-1 employers should stay tuned for further developments.