Employers nationwide reacted strongly to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) January 2016 proposed rule that would require federal contractors and other employers with 100 or more employees to report summary employee pay data in their annual EEO-1 reports. See EEOC Seeks to Expand Pay Discrimination Enforcement Capabilities with Proposed Revisions to EEO-1 Form and Concerns Loom Over EEOC’s Efforts to Obtain Data Targeting Discriminatory Pay Practices.

While we are still awaiting a final rule, the EEOC announced on July 13, 2016, that it agreed to delay implementation of the new reporting guidelines from the initially proposed date of September 30, 2017, until March 31, 2018, so that employers could use existing W-2 pay reports and report on a calendar year basis. The EEOC explained the change as a way to minimize the burden on employers of reporting pay data. The EEOC announcement did not address any of the many other issues raised in comments to the original proposed rule, but it comes with a fresh 30-day comment period.

We anticipate the EEOC will try to publish the final rule before the end of 2016, given the current political climate, and we will continue providing updates on this important change to employers’ reporting requirements. In the meantime, we encourage employers potentially impacted by the proposed rule to work with their counsel to identify risks and strategies to reduce the risks before being forced to report their pay data in a publicly available document. While the updated proposed rule appears to provide more time for employers to comply, keep in mind that even with a 2018 reporting deadline, employers will be reporting data from 2017. Accordingly, if an employer wants to make adjustments to its pay structure, it must be working toward that goal now for 2017 implementation.