OFCCP has filed a notice to the Federal Register this morning in an effort to formalize their position surrounding the recent collection of EEOC Component 2 pay data, as well as expectations surrounding compliance evaluations for federal contractors. While not finalized, the notice is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on November 25th.
OFCCP makes it clear that they will not “request, accept, or use” the EEO-1 Component 2 data that the EEOC is collecting this year. The agency claims they do not “expect to find significant utility” with the Component 2 data based on the “limited resources” and “aggregated nature” of the data.
According to OFCCP, the current Component 2 methodology does not allow the agency to analyze the collected data in a format necessary to accomplish its mission of “ensuring federal contractors are not engaged in unlawful pay discrimination.” More specifically, the aggregated nature of the pay and hours worked data would not allow for meaningful comparisons to be made between similarly situated employees, as required by Title VII standards, when enforcing EO 11246. The agency will, however, continue to receive EEO-1 Component 1 data, as it has historically used this as one factor of the selection criteria to identify contractors and subcontractors for compliance evaluations.
The state of the Component 2 pay data collection remains in limbo. The EEOC held a hearing on the matter earlier this week, but the agency has previously stated they will not renew the Component 2 report next year. The portal will remain open for the current data collection effort until January 2020.
Although both OFCCP and EEOC have rejected the utility of the Component 2 data, whether the latter agency will continue the data collection in future years remains to be seen. DCI will continue to post updates regarding Component 2 here on our blog.
By Lily Kerr, HR Analyst at DCI Consulting
