In July 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) filed suit against Cotti Foods Corporation after it allegedly failed to file EEO-1 reports between 2021-2023, despite repeated notice. Last month, the parties entered into a consent decree under which Cotti Foods is required to file three years’ worth of past-due data within 30 days, appoint an EEO-1 reporting monitor to ensure reports are filed on time in the future, and allow the EEOC to monitor its compliance with the decree for the next five years (including inspections of its premises, employee interviews, and production and inspection of its records).
Don’t be naughty like Cotti—use this recent settlement as a cautionary tale to properly collect and file timely EEO-1 reports.
EEO-1 Reporting Basics
Under Title VII, covered employers are required to submit EEO-1 data, which consists of the racial/ethnic and gender composition of their workforce by specific job categories. A company must submit EEO-1 data to the EEOC if it:
- Employs more than 100 employees;
- Employs less than 100 employees but is owned, affiliated with, or controlled by a company with more than 100 employees overall; or
- Employs 50 or more employees AND has a federal contract/subcontract over $50,000.
Full-time and part-time employees should be included in the above employee counts. If a company has more than one establishment, it must submit headquarters, establishment-level, and consolidated reports.
Data Collection and Reporting
A company must include data from a “workforce snapshot period,” which can be any pay period from October 1st through December 31st. Only employees on the payroll during the snapshot period are counted. If an employee was employed during the snapshot period, they must be included, even if they resigned or were terminated during or after this same period.
Filling out the EEO-1 report itself is simple—what employers often find difficult is collecting the data. Covered employers should incorporate the collection of demographics data into their onboarding practices to avoid challenges collecting data during the snapshot period. Organizing each job title into one of the EEO-1 job classifications will also prove helpful. For those companies using third-party vendors to assist with these processes, it important to clearly communicate to employees that the company is legally required to collect and report the data, and that it will be kept confidential. Finally, make sure that EEO-1 data is stored separately from employee records.
The deadline for filing EEO-1 reports in 2025 has yet to be released, but will likely be in the spring.
