EEOC to Require Employers to Submit Both 2017 and 2018 Compensation Data by September 30, 2019

By Mitchell J. Cogen - Bullard Law

May 6, 2019

We recently reported that following protracted legal battles, the EEOC confirmed that Component 1 race, gender and ethnicity data for calendar 2018 must be filed no later than May 31, 2019 using the currently available portal, and Component 2 pay data for calendar year 2018 must be filed no later than September 30, 2019. The EEOC expects the submission portal for filing Component 2 compensation data to be open by July 15, 2019.   

What was still up in the air was which year’s Component 2 pay data would be required in addition to the calendar year 2018 data. On April 25, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the EEOC to select collecting either retrospective calendar year 2017 data or calendar year 2019 compensation data to be reported in next year’s reporting period.

The EEOC recently announced that it has chosen to collect two years of Component 2 data in the current cycle for both calendar 2017 and calendar year 2018. Thus, as to be reflected in the Federal Register, the EEOC will require covered employers to file EEO-1 Component 2 pay data for both calendar years 2017 and 2018 by September 30, 2019.

Note that whereas private employers with 100 employees or more are required to file both Form EEO-1 Component 1 (race, ethnicity, and gender) and Component 2 (compensation) data, federal contractors with at least $50,000 in federal contracts that are otherwise required to file Form EEO-1 are only required to file Component 2 data if they have 100 or more employees. Thus, covered federal contractors with 50-99 employees are required to file only Component 1 data with their EEO-1.

The government may seek an appeal and/or stay of the court’s order. However, absent such action by the government, covered employers should be prepared to submit both Component 1 and Component 2 data for calendar years 2017 and 2018 as set forth above.

We will keep you updated on any new developments. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding pay data collection requirements or auditing pay practices, please contact Bullard Law.