As previously covered by HR Legalist, a federal court recently revived the EEOC’s expansion of the annual EEO-1 reporting requirement for employers, which was originally proposed in 2016.  Due to the court’s ruling, employers with 100 or more employees will be required to collect and report wage information as well as the job category, sex, race, and ethnicity information contained in the traditional EEO-1 Report.

In its original March 4, 2019, decision, the court did not clarify when employers would first have to submit the new information.  However, in a follow-up status conference, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia set an April 3, 2019, deadline for the government to inform employers when and how the new data would be collected.

In its most recent submission, filed with the court on April 3^rd, the government indicated that the EEOC’s Acting Chair was exercising her authority to set a September 30, 2019, collection deadline for the new wage data (referred to as “Component 2 data”).  The government submitted a declaration from the EEOC’s Chief Data Officer, stating that the data processes currently used to collect the traditional EEO-1 demographic data could not accommodate the new pay data.  The EEOC determined that, due to the volume of data contemplated by the expanded reporting rule, the information collection would need to be handled by a data and analytics contractor.  Furthermore, while the expanded rule was originally slated to include 2017 pay data, the government’s latest filing indicates that the EEOC is only prepared to collect data for the calendar year 2018.

The worker advocates who brought the federal lawsuit now have the opportunity to submit a reply to the EEOC’s proposal.  These advocacy groups are expected to push for a shorter turnaround time for the new data reporting.  In the meantime, the EEOC website still states that the agency is “working diligently” in response to the court’s recent ruling, and will “provide further information as soon as possible.”  That means that, at least for now, employers required to submit EEO-1 reports are still waiting on clarity (and perhaps humming along to Green Day’s 2005 hit).