Good News for Employers with Over 100 Employees

Legal Alert

August 30, 2017

For employers getting ready to comply with the revised EEO-1 Report, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) provided good news on August 29, 2017 by announcing that it had indefinitely suspended the new “Component 2” of the EEO-1 Report because of concerns that some aspects of Component 2 “lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.” “Component 2” was the portion of the revised EEO-1 Report that would have required employers with over 100 employees to submit W-2 and FLSA hours worked information. [See October 11, 2016 Client Alert]

The EEOC is expected to submit a new information collection package for the EEO-1 Report to the OIRA for review and provide more information about the revised EEO-1's status and what employers can now expect. Until then, employers must assume that they will be required to file EEO-1 Reports by March 31, 2018, based on a “workforce snapshot.” The “workforce snapshot” is any pay period between October 1 and December 31 of the reporting year. This means employers are free to choose any pay period during this time to calculate full and part-time employees for EEO-1 purposes. The information to be reported will include demographic information by EEO-1 job category, but it will not include information on compensation or hours worked. Federal government contractors that are required to file VETS-4212 forms must still file those reports by September 30, 2017.

Even though Component 2 is not required, pay information still is important to the EEOC. In her statement about the EEO-1 pay data collection, Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic stated "[t]he EEOC remains committed to strong enforcement of our federal equal pay laws, a position I have long advocated. Today's decision will not alter EEOC's enforcement efforts.” Therefore, employers should take appropriate actions to ensure that their pay practices are applied without regard to any protected status.

This client alert is intended to inform clients and other interested parties about legal matters of current interest and is not intended as legal advice. If you have any questions regarding these issues, please contact your Labor and Employment counsel at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.