Last week, a federal judge overturned the suspension put in place in 2017 by the White House Office of Management and Budget of the EEO-1 form’s new pay data reporting provisions. Although an appeal of the decision can be expected, it remains uncertain whether such an appeal would result in further delay of the requirements.
The reinstated provisions require employers who must file annual EEO-1 reports to, for the first time, report wage information and hours worked for all employees by race, ethnicity, and sex within 12 pay bands. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has touted the new provisions as a means to improve enforcement against pay discrimination. Critics, on the other hand, have characterized the requirements as administratively burdensome and ineffectual to achieve its stated purpose by failing to account for other nondiscriminatory variables encompassed in wage data, such as overtime and bonuses.
The current filing deadline for 2018 EEO-1 reports is May 31, 2019. There has been no word yet from the EEOC, but the agency may be inclined to extend the May 31 filing deadline to allow employers time to collect the pay data component for reporting. It is important to note, however, that the U.S. District Court judge who issued the decision overturning the suspension ruled for the immediate reinstatement of the pay data provisions, rejecting the idea that employers would be unprepared to provide the additional information, in part, because the provisions were in effect for close to a year before their suspension.
In the meantime, employers should stay up to date on further developments in the legal action as well as from the EEOC, to ensure compliance for 2018 reporting and onward.
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