EEOC’S Pay Reporting Requirements Suspended

On August 29, 2017, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) announced that it was immediately suspending the revised Equal Employer Information Report (“EEO-1 Report”), which included burdensome pay reporting obligations for employers. Previously, the EEO-1 Report directed federal contractors and employers with 100 or more employees to report annually the number of individuals that they employ by job category, race, ethnicity and gender. The proposed EEO-1 revisions, however, expanded the information collected to include pay ranges and hours worked. This expansion was aimed at identifying pay gaps and focusing employers on the issue of equal pay between male and female employees.

In response to the proposed reporting requirements, employers expressed concern over privacy and confidentiality issues surrounding the disclosure of pay data and also questioned the overall utility in collecting such data. In suspending the revised EEO-1 Report, the OMB recognized similar concerns, stating that some aspects of the proposed collection of information “lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.” Accordingly, the OMB directed the EEOC to publish a notice advising that the proposed wage and hour reporting requirements were immediately suspended and further directed the EEOC to provide additional information for its future consideration.

As a result of this directive, employers can put aside plans to collect data reflecting pay ranges and hours worked for the time being. However, in doing so, employers should be mindful to stay abreast of any updates in reporting requirements following any further review by the OMB. In addition, employers are still required to submit EEO-1 Reports using the previously approved form, which requires employers to disclose their employees’ race, ethnicity, and gender by job category. The deadline for submission of this report remains March 21, 2018.