The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that due to the federal government shutdown the new deadline for employers to file their EEO-1 forms covering 2018 has been extended to May 31.
The commission made the announcement on Feb. 1 that “due to the partial lapse in appropriations, the opening of the EEO-1 has been postponed until early March 2019. The deadline to submit EEO-1 data will be extended until May 31, 2019.”
When the confrontation between President Trump and Democrats in Congress over a border wall along the Mexican board led to a 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government, it was speculated that the EEOC would need to make a change in the deadline.
On Jan. 30, EEOC Spokesperson James Ryan told us: “I’m advised that reporting employers should use one payroll in the fourth quarter of last year. They will receive a letter at some point advising them further. Also, they are advised to keep checking www.eeoc.gov for updates.”
The EEO-1 is an annual survey required to be filed by all private employers with 100 or more employees and federal government contractors or first-tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and a federal contract, subcontract or purchase order amounting to $50,000. Employer filing of the EEO-1 report is mandated by federal civil rights law.
Required for more than a half century, the EEO-1 report is not intended to be used by the agency to target individual employers. Instead, the data gathered is supposed to help EEOC form new policies and regulations.
Under requirements created by the Obama EEOC but later withdrawn, employers earlier had been expected to supply W-2 income data for the number of employees in each of 10 different job categories. They then had to categorize their compensation in 12 different annual pay bands ranging from about $19,000 to more than $208,000. At the time, federal officials described the new form as a cornerstone of the Obama administration’s campaign to promote equal pay.
EEOC estimated the total economic burden for employers to fill out and file the new form would be $53.5 million and 1.9 million hours per year. That was grossly understated, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said. A Chamber survey of employers in 2016 showed the actual cost would be more than $400 million in labor costs alone, and would have resulted in a total burden on employers of $1.3 billion a year.
Under President Trump, the Office of Management and Budget—the White House office responsible for reviewing all new federal regulations—agreed with critics in the employer community that the proposed rules were too burdensome and ordered the expanded form be withdrawn.
Details and instructions for the 2018 EEO-1 filers, including the exact date of the survey opening, will be forthcoming, the commission stated. It also said that filers should refer to the EEO-1 website in the coming weeks for updates on the new schedule.
For general inquiries, or if you have an EEO-1 company contact update, the agency asks that employers send an email to [email protected]. If your company has experienced any mergers or acquisitions between January 2018 and December 31, 2018, make sure to email [email protected]. Any spinoff-related emails should be sent to [email protected].
