Today, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and the Obama administration announced a proposed revision to the Employer Information Report (“EEO-1”) that the agency says will assist in identifying possible instances of pay discrimination and help employers promote equal pay in the workplace. The EEOC currently collects workforce profiles annually, which include data on employees’ race, ethnicity, and gender. The proposed revision to the EEO-1 form would require employers with more than 100 employees to also provide data on pay ranges and hours worked beginning with the September 2017 report. The proposal calls for summary wage data to be reported across job categories and pay ranges, but does not require the reporting of specific employee salaries.
Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said the additional data would help employers evaluate their own pay practices to prevent pay discrimination, as well as provide the Department of Labor with a more powerful tool to root out discrimination where it exists. EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang echoed the Secretary, explaining that access to aggregated pay data would assist employers in their own analysis and ultimately facilitate voluntary compliance. Employers should expect that the data will also be used by the EEOC to identify employers that may be engaging in pay discrimination practices.
The proposed changes to the EEO-1 will be published in the Federal Register on February 1, 2016 and the public comment period will run until April 1, 2016.