In the latest twist in the EEO-1 pay data saga, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accepted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) proposal that the deadline for submission of employee pay data should be September 30, 2019.

As detailed in our prior alerts, the court's decision eliminates the uncertainty over when employers will be required to submit the pay data portion of the EEO-1 report.

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, ruling from the bench, expressed skepticism of the EEOC's position and reiterated the court's frustration with the agency. The court noted that the government "does not have clean hands in this case," and ordered the EEOC to collect an additional year's worth of pay data. The EEOC must now choose whether to collect employers' pay data from 2017 or 2019.

The EEOC has until April 29 to issue a statement on its website informing employers of the court's order and until May 3 to decide whether it will collect 2017 or 2019 pay data. For employers, it would be much easier to gather the required pay data prospectively, once they have gone through the collection and organization process, as opposed to retroactively organizing 2017 pay data.   

The court's order comes at a time of increased awareness and interest in pay equity issues.

Given the detailed nature of the required pay information, employers should begin compiling their pay data well in advance of the September 30 deadline.