EEOC has submitted a proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which would discontinue pay data collection for the future. However, employers subject to the pay data collection requirements must submit data for 2017 and 2018 by September 30, 2019.

EEOC, like other federal agencies, must request an approval of any substantive request for information from the public. This request must be approved by OMB. These approvals are typically granted for three years. After that, an agency must request an extension for its data collection. OMB’s approval for the EEO-1 survey expires on September 30, 2019. This expiration applies to both component 1 (the traditional data collected for the EEO-1) and component 2 (the pay data collection).

Litigation on Pay Data Continues

EEOC continues to be involved in litigation regarding component 2 for the EEO-1 survey. The federal judge overseeing this litigation has ordered an extension of the approval for collection of component 2 data until April 5, 2021. In that light, EEOC has asked to have a new OMB number issued to separate the collection of component 1 data from the collection of component 2 data. This way, EEOC can continue with the collection of the traditional EEO-1 data while it waits for the conclusion of the litigation regarding the collection of pay data.

EEOC submitted a request to extend the collection of data for the EEO-1 survey on September 12, 2019. In its submission to OMB, EEOC explained its rationale for ending the collection of component 2 data. EEOC stated that its previous estimate regarding the number of hours required to submit component 2 data significantly underestimated the number of hours associated with submitting component 2 data. EEOC’s decision to end the collection of pay data was based on the fact that “the unproven utility of the pay data…is far outweighed by the burden imposed on employers.”

Public Invited to Comment

EEOC has invited the public to submit comments regarding its request to extend the collection of component 1 data and end the collection of component 2 data. Comments must be submitted by November 12, 2019. Comments can be submitted on the Federal Register website. A copy of EEOC’s Federal Register notice can be found on our website.