Compliance Alert
EEOC Announces Updated Proposed Revision of the
Employer Information Report (EEO-1)
Effective Date: March 31, 2018 proposed due date for the 2017 EEO-1 Reporting Cycle
On July 13, 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published its revised proposal regarding Revisions to the EEO-1 Report in the Federal Register which took into consideration public comments received in response to the EEOC’s original proposal published on February 1, 2016. Below are the important changes made and items that remain the same.
The EEOC’s proposal still requires all employers with 100 or more employees (including government contractors) to submit data on W-2 wages and hours worked in addition to the race, ethnicity and gender data by job category already required by the current EEO-1 report. The compensation component of the EEO-1 report would require number of employees and total hours worked according to a pre-defined pay band structure, by race, ethnicity and gender. Where employees fall within the pay band structure would be determined by W-2 wages. Since the 12 pay bands would be set by the EEOC, Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) and payroll systems would possibly need to be re-programmed in order to meet the new data reporting requirements.
When reporting hours worked, the EEOC provides employers with two options for reporting exempt employees: (a) report actual hours worked if the employer maintains this information; or (b) report a proxy of 40 hours per week for full-time exempt employees and 20 hours per week for part-time exempt employees multiplied by the number of weeks the individuals are employed during the EEO-1 reporting year. Hours for non-exempt employees will need to be reported as actual hours worked.
The EEOC extended the first due date to March 31, 2018 for the 2017 EEO-1 report, so no EEO-1 report will be due in 2017. Additionally, the EEOC proposed changing the “workforce snapshot” to a pay period between October 1st and December 31st. This year’s filing deadline remains September 30, 2016.
The EEOC clarified that they propose using Box 1 from the W-2 forms to measure pay. Box 1 on the W-2 includes commissions, tips, bonuses, overtime, and other supplemental pay, but does not include certain elective deferrals or pre-tax deductions such as employer-sponsored retirement plan (401(k) or 403(b)) contributions, flexible spending account contributions for health and dependent care, and medical contributions.
If you have any questions, or would like to discuss this Compliance Alert further, please feel free to contact me.
Maly Consulting, LLC – July 2016
