An expanding company is always great news, but as many business owners, Presidents, and CEOs will admit, with growth comes many different responsibilities beyond those that were required when the company had fewer employees. Once a company’s number of employees grows beyond a certain number, additional responsibilities are required of the company by the government to provide additional information about the company as an equal opportunity employer. Specifically, this means that the company must begin filing an EEO-1 report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that administers and enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual’s race, children, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, and retaliation for reporting, participating in, and/or opposing a discriminatory practice.
The EEOC has required employers who meet specific criteria to report the number of employees by sex, race/ethnicity, and job category through its Employer Information Report, or EEO-1 report. In February 2016, the EEOC published a notice in the Federal Register announcing its intention to revise the EEO-1 data collection and begin collecting pay data as well. The revised EEO-1 form requires employers to report W-2 Box 1 wage information within 12 pay bands and total hours worked for all employees during the “workforce snapshot period” categorized by sex, race/ethnicity, and job category, also known as Component 2 EEO-1 data. For nonexempt employees, under the definitions in place by Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers should report the annual sum of hours each nonexempt employee worked. For exempt employees, employers may report A) the actual hours worked, or B) a proxy of 40-hours per week for a full-time exempt employee, and 20 hours per week for a part-time exempt employee, multiplied by the number of weeks the individual was employed during the EEO-1 reporting year.
“Workforce Snapshot Period”
An important piece of counting the number of employees to determine whether an EEO-1 report needs to be filed is called the “workforce snapshot period.” The “workforce snapshot period” is an employer-selected pay period between October 1 and December 31 of the reporting year. The workforce snapshot period for the 2017 EEO-1 report would be an employer-selected pay period between October 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017. Likewise, the workforce snapshot period for the 2018 EEO-1 report would be an employer-selected pay period between October 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018. The only employees whose compensation and hours-worked data must be reported are those full- and part-time employees who were on the employer’s payroll during the workforce snapshot period. Employers are not required to use the same workforce snapshot period for both reports.
Who Must File?
Employers that fit into any of the following criteria are required to submit EEO-1 Component 1 and Component 2 data as described above:
- All
private employers who are:
- Subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972) with 100 or more employees EXCLUDING state and local governments, public primary and secondary school systems, institutions of higher education, American Indian or Alaska Native tribes and tax-exempt private membership clubs other than labor organizations; or
- subject to Title VII who have fewer than 100 employees if the company is owned or affiliated with another company, or there is centralized ownership, control or management (such as central control of personnel policies and labor relations) so that the group legally constitutes a single enterprise, and the entire enterprise employs a total of 100 or more employees.
- All
federal contractors (private employers), who:
- Are not exempt as provided for by 41 CFR 60-1.5,
- have
50 or more employees, and
- are prime contractors or first-tier subcontractors, and have a contract, subcontract, or purchase order amounting to $50,000 or more; or
- serve as a depository of Government funds in any amount, or
- a financial institution which is an issuing and paying agent for U.S. Savings Bonds and Savings Notes.
- Federal contractors with 1-49 employees, and other private employers with 1-99 employees, are not required to file either EEO-1 component 1 data or component 2 data.
- Only those establishments located in the District of Columbia and the 50 states are required to submit Standard Form 100. No reports should be filed for establishments in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or other American Protectorates.
Submitting the Component 2 EEO-1 Data
Submitting Component 2 EEO-1 data will be a little different than submitting Component 1 EEO-1 data. The EEOC has contracted with the non-partisan and objective research organization NORC at the University of Chicago to collect both 2017 and 2018 Component 2 EEO-1 data. The EEOC is requiring companies to be submitted via the Component 2 EEO-1 Online filing System (https://eeoccomp2.norc.org/) as a CSV data file. The filing system went live on July 15, 2019, and has gone through a few changes adding additional validation checks while submitting the data. Companies will receive their login information two ways: a notification letter mailed to the company, and also an email send to the registered EEO-1 email address on record. A password will be set-up during the first login to the online filing system, once an initial verification of the employer’s User ID, Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN), and email address have been completed. Finally, once all of the appropriate reports have been completed for the company, the person responsible for completing the reports must certify that the information being submitted is accurate and correctly prepared according to the instructions provided by the EEOC.
The federal government analyzes EEO-1 report data to protect the civil rights of workers and to examine employment patterns and representation. EEO-1 data gives the EEOC concrete data directly linked to employers who are likely to exhibit patterns of discrimination, and this data shows what is happening at individual facilities. Based on the EEO-1 report data, the government may decide to evaluate a company regarding its compliance with equal opportunity employment laws.
The EEOC does not release the EEO-1 report data to the public or any other entity or individual, except for individuals working with EEOC to analyze the data or perform company evaluations. It is illegal for any Commission employee to release information about any EEO-1 report to any unauthorized person.
In summary, companies who must file an EEO-1 report should be aware of the additional reporting requirements also known as Component 2 EEO-1 data. This data adds on to the existing EEO-1 report by including pay data and the number of hours worked during the “workforce snapshot period” by each employee as a reporting requirement. Companies should submit Component 2 EEO-1 data for calendar year 2017, in addition to data for calendar year 2018, electronically no later than September 30, 2019.
For additional information and frequently asked questions (FAQs) about EEO-1 report companies may visit the EEOC’s EEO-1 survey website at https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/index.cfm. Additionally, a help desk is available to offer other support companies may need. Staff are available Monday through Friday 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. CST. The contact information for the help desk is as follows:
- Email: EEOCcompdata@norc.org
- Toll Free: 877-324-6214
Written By: Patrick McKenna, SHRM-CP
HR Consultant
08/13/2019
