In a recent announcement we learned that in April the EEOC will start to collect annual EEO-1 data from covered employers. Covered employers will have to file data for both 2019 and 2020, since the agency did not collect the 2019 data last year due to COVID-19. The EEO-1 requires employers to report on the racial/ethnic and gender composition of their workforce by specific job categories, referred to as component 1 data.
Under federal law, businesses with at least 100 employees and some federal contractors must file the EEO-1 form each year. The EEOC uses information about the number of women and minorities companies employ to support civil rights enforcement and analyze employment patterns. Equality in the workplace, specifically addressing gender-based pay inequality, is something President Joe Biden has vowed to undertake. With this being the case, we do not foresee the dates being moved back for another year.
The EEOC said filers should start preparing their data for submission, however the opening date has not been announced. All in all, this process should be easy to understand and straightforward once we have the dates in place.
The EEOC has said it does not intend to collect pay data from Component 2 of the EEO-1 form. The agency will collect data for the EEO-1 form’s well-established Component 1, which asks businesses to list their employees by job category, race, ethnicity and sex. Component 2 of the form requested employees’ hours worked and pay information from W-2 forms, broken down by the same categories.
We understand the trepidation that comes with filing reports such as these. Although there will be a multitude of resources available for your use, if you need any help, we are always here for you.