Friday, September 1, 2023: October 31st Set as Opening Date for Revised EEO-1 Survey Component 1 Data Collection
Filing Deadline is December 5, 2023
OMB Approved Revised Component 1 Collection for Only One Year in Anticipation of Revisions to Race & Ethnic Data Collection Standards
Commission Now in Position to Propose Revamped Component 2 Data Collection
The annual EEO-1 Component 1 Data Collection – for employers subject to Title VII and with over 100 employees, and for covered federal Government contractors with only 50 or more employees – will open Tuesday, October 31, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced. The filing deadline is Tuesday, December 5, 2023. (See our story from last year on what happens if you miss the deadline.)
The EEO-1 online Filer Support Message Center (i.e., filer ”Help Desk”) will also be available beginning on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. The Help Desk will assist filers with any inquiries they may have regarding the 2022 collection, the announcement states.
It continues:
“All updates about the 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection, including the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Instruction Booklet and the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Data File Upload Specifications, will be posted to www.eeocdata.org/eeo1 as they become available. The EEOC anticipates posting the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Instruction Booklet for filers on Wednesday, September 6, 2023. The EEOC anticipates posting the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Data File Upload Specifications for filers on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.”
Going on Behind the Scenes – Coming Elimination (this Year) of Type 4 and Type 8 EEO-1 Reports, and OMB Gearing Up for Revised Race & Ethic Data Collection Standards
Expect major changes to data being reported for the next EEO-1 Report (to be filed in 2024) after the one due this Fall 2023. In fact, the changes will be large enough that most HR Departments are well advised to take down in their budgets for 2024 additional money and staff time to accomplish the needed changes coming for the 2024 EEO-1 filing…not for your filing vendor, but rather for increased in-house costs to understand and order up the needed changed data, and to tag, collect and report data in ways different than in the past and update computerized data reporting systems.
WIR readers may recall that in November 2022 and again in May 2023, we reported that the EEOC proposed – as part of its routine Paperwork Reduction Act (“PRA”) renewal request to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) – to eliminate counting employees to determine filing “Type” for the EEO-1 Component 1 Data Collection. See our story here for a detailed discussion of that proposal. The 60-day Notice comment period for this renewal request ended on January 9, 2023, with only two comments submitted. The 30-day Notice comment period closed on June 1, 2023, with only one comment submitted.
Readers may also recall that on June 29 the EEOC discreetly announced that it had pushed back the tentative starting date for EEO-1 reporting to Fall 2023 (our story is here). At the time, the EEOC explained that the tentative deadline pushback was because it is “currently completing a mandatory, three-year renewal of the EEO-1 Component 1 data collection” by the OMB in accordance with the PRA requirements.
On August 8, 2023, the OMB approved the proposed changes, including the EEOC’s proposal to eliminate the “types” of EEO-1 reporting (i.e., by discontinuing the requirement for “Type 4” and “Type 8” EEO-1 reports), but ONLY for one year. This is unusual because OMB approvals for “information collection requirements” under the PRA, such as the EEO-1 Survey, are normally for three years.
OMB’s corresponding Terms of Clearance stated:
“OMB approves this collection of information for 1 year. Before submitting the collection for future approvals, OMB requests that EEOC work closely with OMB to ensure that the collection is preparing to become fully compliant with upcoming revisions to OMB’s Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity and any associated OMB guidance. OMB also recommends that EEOC seek the input of affected stakeholders about any revisions as early as possible and provide respondents with ample notice before making revisions in order to minimize burdens. Finally, OMB expects EEOC to keep it updated about any possible revisions to this report on a regular basis.”
We reported in May that the OMB Working Group started preparing its Final Recommendations to overhaul federal race and ethnicity data collections. Furthermore, we noted in that story that the “OMB remains on track” to meet its goal of completing its planned revisions to the 1997 Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (“SPD 15”) no later than Summer 2024.
Thus, OMB’s Terms of Clearance in its August 8 approval to implement the revised EEO-1 Survey collection for only one year is another indication from OMB that it is on track with its plans to update SPD 15 by Summer 2024.
DE Members: Please note that the Listening Session with OMB for DE Members as to OMB’s proposed re-definition of race in America is scheduled for September 21, 2023. Look for registration e-mails from DE or consult DE Connect.
EEOC Now Also Set Up to Propose Component 2 Data Collection
Moreover, now that the bipartisan EEOC is fully staffed, as of August 9, with five Commissioners and with three Democrats in control for the first time in the Biden Administration, the path forward is clear for the Commission’s Democrat majority to soon propose “Component 2 Hours Worked and Pay Data Reporting.” This controversial employer reporting of its pay data would accompany, once proposed and finalized, the EEOC’s annual requirement that employers with 100 or more employees file EEO-1 Reports of the race, sex and national origin of their employees sorted by ten “EEO-1 categories” running the gamut of employees (from top to bottom) from “Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers” down to “Service Workers,” usually the lowest paid employees in U.S. workforces.
For more background on this past, and likely future, pay data reporting requirement, see our stories here, here, here, and here. You may also use the “Search Site” search tool on the right-hand side of every Week in Review publication for even more stories on this topic.