The U.S. District Court hearing the EEO-1 pay data reporting case has ordered EEOC to inform employers by April 3, 2019, whether they will be required to provide pay and hours worked data for the 2018 EEO-1 reporting cycle. The current deadline for 2018 EEO-1 reporting is May 31, 2019.

As we reported on March 5, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) stay of the EEOC’s pay data collection tool and ordered the OMB’s previous approval of the revised EEO-1 form to be in effect. National Women’s Law Ctr. V. OMB, No. 17-2458 (D.D.C. Mar. 4, 2019). In the wake of the court’s decision, employers were left to question the impact of the ruling, including whether the EEOC would require submission of the pay data by the May 31st reporting deadline or extend the deadline. The pay data reporting requirements would impact all employers, including federal contractors, with 100 or more employees.

On March 18, the EEOC opened the online portal for filing EEO-1 report workforce demographic (Component 1) data and issued the following statement regarding the pay data reporting requirement:

As it announced on February 1, the EEOC is opening its EEO-1 online portal to receive 2018 EEO-1 Component 1 data starting March 18, 2019, and ending May 31, 2019. . . . The EEOC is working diligently on next steps in the wake of the court’s order in National Women’s Law Center, et al., v. Office of Management and Budget, et al., Civil Action No. 17-cv-2458 (TSC), which vacated the OMB stay on collection of Component 2 EEO-1 pay data. The EEOC will provide further information as soon as possible.

The portal for submission of the 2018 EEO-1 Component 1 data is linked here.

EEOC’s March 18 statement provided little guidance as to what steps the agency may take in response to the court ruling, leading the plaintiffs in the underlying lawsuit to request a court conference to obtain information about how EEOC intended to proceed. Following a conference on March 19th, the court ordered EEOC to inform employers by April 3rd of the agency’s timeline for the pay data collection.

Our Jackson Lewis Pay Equity Resource Group will continue to monitor these developments and provide guidance on compliance.