On May 2, 2019, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted a notice on its website indicating that the agency would collect pay data for calendar years 2017 and 2018. This pay data must be provided to the agency by September 30, 2019. The decision to collect pay data for 2017 and 2018 is an outgrowth of a court case in the District Court for the D.C. Circuit. The District Court had lifted a stay imposed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and ordered EEOC to collect pay data from employers required to provide data for the EEO-1 report.

EEOC’s announcement regarding its decision to collection pay data for 2017 and 2018 reads in part:

EEO-1 filers should begin preparing to submit [pay data] for calendar year 2017, in addition to data for calendar year 2018, by September 30, 2019…  The EEOC expects to begin collecting [pay data] for calendar years 2017 and 2018 in mid-July, 2019…

EEOC had been ordered to collect compensation data for calendar year 2018. The agency had been given the choice of collecting compensation data for either calendar year 2017 or calendar year 2019. EEOC’s announcement does not provide a reason why the agency chose to collect data for 2017 rather than 2019.

There may be additional action by EEOC or OMB regarding the collection of pay data. However, employers should begin to determine how they will provide the pay data required by the agency. More details on the specific data to be collected by EEOC and the process the agency intends to use to collect this data should be available in the coming weeks.

EEOC is currently collecting the traditional demographic data associated with the EEO-1 report. Employers should be sure to submit this data by the May 31, 2019 deadline. The data to be submitted for the current portion of the EEO-1 survey should be for a fourth quarter payroll from 2018.

EEOC published a notice in the federal register on May 3, 2019 regarding the collection of pay data. The notice is available on our website from this link.