Employers and federal contractors required to file the EEO-1 Report are likely to be relieved to learn that, on August 29, 2017, the federal government announced an immediate stay on the requirement that they use the recently-revised version of the EEO-1 in the reports due on March 31, 2018.
This sudden about-face results from an August 29, 2017, Office of Management Budget (OMB) communication to the Acting Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).1
According to OMB, it implemented the stay to allow an appropriate review of those aspects of the EEO-1 form that were revised only eleven months ago, on September 29, 2016.
The stay is necessary from OMB’s perspective because “the public did not receive an opportunity to provide comment on the method of data submission to EEOC,” and “EEOC’s burden estimates did not account for the use of these particular data file specifications.”
OMB also explained that it “is concerned that some aspects of the revised collection of information lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.”
Employers and federal contractors are expected to applaud the stay because the revised EEO-1 included new requests for data on wages and hours.
They also should note the new EEOC guidance, which also came out on August 29, 2017. According to that guidance, “the previously approved EEO-1 form which collects data on race, ethnicity and gender by occupational category will remain in effect,” and employers should “plan to comply with the earlier approved EEO-1 (Component 1) by the previously set filing date of March 2018.”2
In other words, use the old EEO-1, not the one that came out eleven months ago, and make sure you file it by the end of March.
1 The OMB memorandum can be found here.
2 The EEOC statement (“What You Should Know: Statement of Acting Chair Victoria A. Lipnic about OMB Decision on EEO-1 Pay Data Collection” can be found here.
