On Sept. 12, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published Notice of Information Collection—Request for New Control Number for a Currently Approved Collection: Employer Information Report (EEO-1) Component 1; Revision of Existing Approval for EEO-1 Component 2.

According to a commission press release, “In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, this 60-day notice relays the EEOC's intent to seek authorization from the Office of Management and Budget for a three-year approval to collect the EEO-1, Component 1, which the EEOC has been collecting since 1966 […] Because the EEOC's 2016 request for OMB authorization included, for the first time, a request for approval for collection of pay data (Component 2), this notice makes clear that the commission is not renewing its request for authorization to collect Component 2.”

On Nov. 12, ABC joined other employer representatives in submitting a comment letter to the EEOC to express support for EEOC’s decision to not seek renewal of OMB clearance for the EEO-1 Component 2 form.

According to the comment letter, “The employer representatives agree with EEOC’s decision to discontinue collection of Component 2 data, based on its conclusion that the degree of utility does not justify the burden imposed. The employer representatives also believe the sensitive nature of Component 2 data warrants heightened attention to protecting its confidentiality and that EEOC has not developed and confirmed adequate procedures to ensure the confidentiality of the data required to be submitted, especially if EEOC shares this data with other agencies and interested parties.”

“The Component 2 collection requires employers with 100 or more employees to complete and submit a form with 3,660 data fields for each of the employer’s locations encompassing pay and hours worked data on all employees broken out by EEOC-defined job classifications and income bands. By contrast, the Component 1 collection requires employers to complete and submit, for each employer location, a form comprised of only 180 data points on the gender, race and ethnicity of employees at that location,” according to the letter.

NOTE:  The submission of Component 2 data was initiated during the Obama administration. However, under the Trump administration, OMB blocked the EEOC from requiring employers to submit any compensation data. In March 2019, the D.C. District Court ordered the OMB stay to be vacated. Over the last few months, ABC has been active in efforts to reverse the court’s March decision. Most recently, according to the EEOC website, on Oct. 29, 2019, the court ordered the EEOC to "take all steps necessary to complete the EEO-1 Component 2 data collection for calendar years 2017 and 2018 by Jan. 31, 2020. Therefore, until further notice, the data collection will remain open past Nov. 11, 2019.  Employers who have not yet filed should do so as soon as possible.”

EEO-1 filers can learn more here.