In response to a request by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the agency to continue collecting compensation data from eligible employers through January 31, 2020. In its October 8th request, the Commission explained that it believed its obligation to collect EEO-1 component 2 data (i.e. pay data) was complete and provided justification. However, the plaintiffs in this case disagreed with this assessment.

EEOC and Plaintiffs Disagree on Percentage of Employers That Must File Component 2 Data

EEOC reported that 81.5% of eligible filers had submitted pay data for 2018, and 81.1% had submitted pay data for 2017. EEOC stated that the mean percentage of employers filing EEO-1 reports by the filing deadline in recent years was 72.7%. In that light, the agency stated that the filing of pay data should be considered complete. However, the National Women’s Law Center and the remaining plaintiffs took a different position. They said that that EEOC should continue accepting component 2 data until the 98.3% of eligible employers responded. This 98.3% rate is the mean percentage of all employers filing EEO-1 reports in recent years either before or after the relevant deadline.

District Court Issues Order to Continue Collection of Component 2 Data

Judge Chuktan sided with the plaintiffs and ordered the EEOC to complete the collection of component 2 data from eligible employers by January 31, 2020. The judge also ordered that EEOC must continue providing status reports every 21 days until January 31, 2020. These reports must indicate all the steps EEOC has taken to implement the collection of Component 2 data in the prior three weeks, what the Commission will do in the ensuing three weeks, and an assessment of whether the Commission is on track to complete the collection of compensation data by the deadline.

Judge Chutkan also ordered EEOC and the plaintiffs to provide a joint status report and proposed order on or before February 7, 2020. This status report must provide a proposed schedule for moving forward if the collection of Component 2 data is not complete by the deadline.