What’s Happened So Far?
In February 2016, the EEOC announced proposed changes to EEO-1 reporting that would require all employers with 100 or more employees to report annual pay data (i.e., W-2 earnings and hours worked) by 12 salary bands, in addition to the already required race/ethnicity and sex data by EEO-1 category. The proposed reporting requirements were slightly revised after a public hearing held by the EEOC in March and public comments submitted in April 2016. Although many criticisms and concerns raised by The Institute for Workplace Equality, including the use of W-2 data, burden estimates, data confidentiality, and the proposed use of the data, were largely unaddressed, the EEOC did make one major change to the revised proposal by shifting the deadline of filing the new EEO-1 report to March 31 so that employers can use W-2 information compiled for tax purposes.
Summary of Comments on the Revised EEO-1 Pay Component
In July 2016, the EEOC published the updated EEO-1 pay data reporting proposal and announced a second public comment period that concluded on August 15th. In response to this final public comment period, The OFCCP Institute submitted comments for a second time, re-addressing many of the same concerns outlined previously, including those regarding burden estimates and the use of W-2 pay data. The OFCCP Institute also raised a new concern regarding the schedule of VETS-4212 reporting. In the revised EEO-1 proposal, the EEOC discusses in footnote 49 that contractors who also file annual VETS-4212 reports are in a position to align their VEVRAA data collection activities with the new EEO-1 reporting period. Essentially, the proposal states that contractors can use the same “workforce snapshot” period between October 1 and December 31 for their VETS-4212 reports. This would allow contractors to use December 31st as their workforce snapshot date, and also as the end date of the covered 12-month period for their VETS-4212 filing. However, it remains unclear whether the September 30th reporting deadline for VETS-4212 will also change to March 31st to coincide with the deadline for revised EEO-1 report. In their comments to the EEOC, the OFCCP Institute requested that the VETS-4212 reporting deadline of September 30th be formally changed to March 31st so that both reporting obligations fall on the same schedule.
The final rule regarding the EEO-1 reporting changes is anticipated as early as next month. Please stay tuned as DCI continues to provide updates to our clients and stakeholders on this subject.
By Brittany Dian, Associate Consultant, and Vinaya Sakpal, HR Analyst, at DCI Consulting Group
