On Monday, February 10, 2020, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered that the collection of pay data by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) should end. The order came after all parties involved in the lawsuit regarding the pay data collection agreed that this collection of data may be considered complete.

Pay Data Collected for 2017 and 2018

In a lawsuit filed against EEOC and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the National Women’s Law Center and other plaintiffs asked EEOC to move forward with the collection of pay data. The collection of this pay data, referred to as Component 2 of the EEO-1 survey, had been stayed by OMB in 2017. Judge Chutkan lifted the stay in March of 2019 and ordered EEOC to begin the pay data collection for either calendar years 2017 and 2018 or calendar years 2018 and 2019. EEOC chose to collect this information for 2017 and 2018.

EEOC originally gave employers until September 30, 2019 to submit the data required for Component 2. However, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit argued that the number of employers filing was insufficient. Judge Chutkan agreed and told EEOC to continue with the pay data collection.

Joint Status Report Proposes End to Pay Data Collection

On Friday, February 7, 2020, EEOC and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit submitted a joint status report to the District Court. In this report, all parties agreed that a sufficient number of employers had filed Component 2. The parties also agreed that “EEOC may wind down its collection of Component 2 data on the timetable of its choosing.”

The joint status report raised a question regarding the retention of the Component 2 data. EEOC had previously suggested that it might not retain this data. However, the February 7 joint status report states that EEOC “plans to retain the collected Component 2 pay data.”

Status of EEO-1 Components 1 and 2

On September 12, 2019, EEOC filed a notice seeking to renew its authorization to collect the traditional demographic data it has previously collected in the EEO-1 survey. This data, referred to as Component 1 data, includes information on the ethnicity, race, and gender of employees. In its September 12 notice, EEOC also indicated that it would not seek to renew the collection of Component 2 data.

As of February 10, 2020, EEOC has not received approval to continue with the collection of Component 1 data. The general expectation is that this approval will arrive soon. It is unlikely that EEOC will be required by the federal District Court to continue with any future collection of Component 2 data. Thus, the collection of pay data appears to be at an end for now. However, there is nothing to prevent EEOC from reinstating Component 2 under a future presidential administration.

Stay tuned to the HR Analytical blog for further EEO-1 updates.