As we previously reported in April of this year, a federal judge set September 30, 2019 as the deadline for covered employers (i.e., having at least 100 employees) to submit pay data in Component 2 of their EEO-1 reports. This month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted its online filing portal to be used for Component 2 data submissions, which is a different portal than that used for Component 1 submissions. This portal is located at eeoccomp2.norc.org and contains helpful guidance materials regarding the Component 2 survey. The portal is not yet open for submissions. On July 12, the EEOC will begin providing employers with log-in information via email and/or US Postal Service, and on July 15 the portal will open.
By September 30, 2019, covered employers must use this portal to submit for calendar years 2017 and 2018 the total number of full-time and part-time employees in each established race/ethnicity and gender category, in each of 12 pay bands established by the EEOC, for each EEO-1 job category. A sample EEO-1 Component 2 form demonstrating the information to be submitted is located here. To determine an employee’s pay, an employer must use W-2 box 1 income. Employers must also report for both years the number of hours worked (in the aggregate) by all of the employees accounted for in each of the 12 pay bands for each EEO-1 job category. For non-exempt employees, the employer reports the total number of hours worked for the entire calendar year. For exempt employees, the employer can either provide actual hours worked if it maintains such information, or use a 40 hour-per-week proxy for full-time workers or a 20 hour-per-week proxy for part-time employees, multiplied by the number of weeks they were employed during the year.
Employers should prepare in advance of the September 30 deadline by collecting and confirming for each full-time and part-time employee:
- Race for 2017 and 2018 snapshot period
- Gender for 2017 and 2018 snapshot period
- 2017 W-2 box 1 income
- 2018 W-2 box 1 income
- 2017 total hours worked
- 2018 total hours worked
The EEOC explains on its portal that the 2017 and 2018 snapshot periods are an employer-selected pay period between October 1 and December 31 of 2017 and 2018, respectively. The EEOC also states that employers can choose different snapshot periods for the two years.
As the September 30 deadline approaches, employers should continue to watch the EEOC’s portal for updates and additional guidance. Employers should also be prepared for the possibility of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that could change the pay data submission requirements. The federal government filed an appeal with the D.C. Circuit seeking to overturn the court order requiring the submission of pay data as part of the EEO-1 report but, as of the date of this post, has not requested a stay of the September 30, 2019 due date, nor has the government filed any brief or motion in the appeal so far.
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