In light of the public health emergency caused by COVID-19, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it will delay collection of EEO-1 Component 1 data until March 2021. Under federal law, businesses with at least 100 employees and federal contractors with at least 50 employees and a federal contract of $50,000 or more generally must file an EEO-1 form each year. This development gives government contractors a one-year extension to file their 2019 Component 1 data.

Many employers had been in the dark regarding deadline dates for 2019 data collection. EEOC only had approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to collect EEO-1 Component 1 data through 2018 under the Paperwork Reduction Act. Thus, the agency was in the process of seeking approval to collect the data for 2019, 2020, and 2021. The agency sent its initial request to the OMB in 2019 and a renewed request on March 23, 2020. Employers were expecting to hear from EEOC about the results. Instead, EEOC announced that EEO-1 data collection would be postponed until next year.

Pending approval from the OMB, EEOC expects to begin collecting both 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 data in 2021 and will notify filers of the precise date the surveys will open. The agency will also be collecting only Component 1 data and plans to discontinue the collection of Component 2 pay data.

This development essentially gives employers a one-year extension to file their 2019 Component 1 data, which includes demographic data based on job category, race, ethnicity, and gender. To prevent having to complete both 2019 and 2020 reports next year, employers are encouraged to compile data and / or complete preparation of the EEO-1 for 2019 if they have the available resources.