Businesses with at least 100 employees and federal contractors with at least 50 employees and a contract of $50,000 or more with the federal government are required to file the EEO-1 form with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). The EEO-1 form reports information about the number of women and minorities employed by the filing organization.
The EEO-1 Component 1 submission deadline of May 31 only required the reporting of the employer’s headcount by race, ethnicity and sex. The EEO-1 Component 2 submission which required more onerous reporting was suspended by the government pending federal court litigation.
In April 2019, the US District Court issued an order allowing the EEOC to move forward with the collection of the Component 2 data from 2017 forward. Pursuant to this order, the EEOC has issued a deadline of September 30, 2019 for employers to submit the Component 2 data. The additional information required by Component 2 includes wage information from Box 1 of the W-2, and total hours worked for all employees by race, ethnicity and sex within the scope of 12 pay bands.
Please note that the submission of Component 2 must be submitted electronically through the EEOC’s web-based portal. The EEOC’s filing portal is now open and employers can access the secure online filing system at: https://eeoccomp2.norc.org/login. If you have over 100 employees and have not received a USPS letter and/or email notification providing a User ID needed to access the system, you can contact the EEOC toll free at 877-324-214 between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm CST Monday through Friday. While further litigation could certainly impact the September 30th deadline, we are advising clients that they should not rely on the hope of a further delay.
It is imperative that you contact your payroll provider or, for those who handle payroll internally, begin assessing what information is contained within your current systems and what additional information is needed to meet the filing deadline. Not only is the potential work time consuming and rife with the potential for human error, the resulting data can also be a cause of concern.
Employers need to know if they are covered under any Federal or State anti-discrimination laws, and if so they need ensure they are complying with the regulations. We recommend that our clients consult with legal counsel and, if necessary, conduct a pay equity analysis. Employers will need to ensure that any wage differences are for reasons that are both non-discriminatory and legitimate. It is important to consider any pay equity issues so any necessary adjustments to employee’s wages can be made to avoid any potential claims and lawsuits.
