The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on April 26, 2021 the opening of the 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 Data Collection, which was previously delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data collection period is open for 12 weeks, expiring on July 19, 2021, representing a two-week extension to the typical ten-week collection period due to the ongoing pandemic and the requirement to submit two years of data this cycle. Employers will be required to file and certify their 2019 EEO-1 reports before filing and certifying their 2020 EEO-1 reports.

As described in our earlier e-trend, the EEO-1 Report is a federally mandated compliance survey that certain employers must file with the EEOC, providing employment data categorized by race/ethnicity, gender, and job category. In general, private (non-governmental) employers who have more than 100 employees and federal contractors who have at least 50 employees and a federal contract of $50,000 or more must file an EEO-1 Report annually. 

Covered employers should begin preparing to submit data in anticipation of the July 19, 2021 filing deadline by visiting the EEOC 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Data Collection website. The website contains FAQs and other information on a variety of topics, including company organizational changes (mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, bankruptcy), multi-establishment employers, and how to count employees including remote workers.