On January 29, 2016, President Obama announced that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) will be proposing (in the form of a proposed new federal regulation) a revision to its longstanding Employer Information Report (“EEO-1”).  The current EEO-1 reporting guidelines require certain private sector employers and federal contractors to provide workforce profiles containing data sorted by race, ethnicity, gender and job category.  The proposed new rules would now expand the scope of those required disclosures in the EEO-1 form.  Specifically, they would require employers with 100 or more employees to report by race, ethnicity and gender their employees’ total hours worked and W-2 earnings (including tips, taxable benefits and bonuses) for a 12-month period.   

Today, February 1, 2016, the EEOC published these proposed rules, along with the revised EEO-1 form, both of which can be accessed through the following links: EEOC Proposed Rules; and Revised EEO-1 Report.  The proposed rules will follow the normal procedures and public comment process required under the Paperwork Reduction Act before they can be implemented.  Thus, the public will have sixty (60) days (or until April 1, 2016) to submit comments. 

If the proposed rules are implemented, companies would be required to submit the new pay data by the September 30, 2017 EEO-1 filing deadline.  The EEOC has stated that it intends to publish the aggregated data collected in an annual salary report, showing the average pay for workers in different sectors and industries across the country.  Notably, unless the EEOC files a discrimination lawsuit as a result of the information contained in a specific company’s EEO-1 report, the EEOC has assured (as of now) that it would not publicly release the name of any company in the annual salary report.

We will continue to monitor the proposed rules through the comment period and report on any further developments as they occur.