Employers: EEO-1 Component 2 Pay Data May Be Required by September 30, 2019

Employers that submit annual Employer Information Report EEO-1 (EEO-1 Reports) may be required to provide Component 2 pay data for the current reporting period by September 30, 2019, according to a recent court submission by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

As previously reported, on March 4, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a decision in National Women’s Law Ctr. v. OMB, No. 17-2458 (D.D.C.), which ordered applicable employers to report their employees’ W-2 wage information and total hours worked by gender, race and ethnicity on Component 2 of the EEO-1 Report.

On March 18, the EEOC opened the EEO-1 online survey portal to accept Component 1 data through May 31, but no guidance was issued regarding the submission of Component 2 pay data. Rather, the EEOC issued a statement noting it was “working diligently on next steps.” The Court, however, subsequently ordered the EEOC and OMB to provide necessary guidance on the collection of the pay data.

On April 3, the government submitted the requested Component 2 pay data guidance. Because September 30 is the expiration of the OMB’s authorization of the EEOC to collect pay data, the EEOC explained it would need to adjust existing deadlines for employers to collect retroactive 2018 Component 2 pay data accordingly.

However, because the EEOC is unable to timely modify its current collection process, it has determined that the only alternative to meet this deadline is to use a data and analytics contractor to collect the pay data, at an estimated cost in excess of $3 million.

The manner in which the Court will rule on the sufficiency of the EEOC’s proposal remains unclear. We will continue to provide updates on EEO-1 Component 2 reporting obligations as additional guidance is issued.