Civil Rights Agency Has Pay Data From Half of Eligible Employers

Just over half of employers required to submit worker pay data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have done so as the Sept. 30 deadline approaches.

The EEOC said Aug. 30 that at least 72.7% of all eligible businesses must submit to the agency workforce wage-and-hour data, broken down by race, sex, and ethnicity, to fulfill a court-mandated collection. As of Sept. 25, 39.7% of the required filers had submitted their data, the agency said in a Sept. 27 status report. The Obama-era reporting requirement was intended to reveal wage-and-hour data with the goal of shrinking workforce pay disparities.

While the deadline for businesses to turn over their information remains Sept. 30, the portal collecting that data won’t close until 72.7% of all businesses make their submissions, as required by a court order. The EEOC could incur up to $1.5 million in additional costs paid to the contractor collecting the data if the portal stays open for an additional six weeks after Sept. 30, the agency said.

This is the first time a federal agency has collected detailed workforce pay data, the result of a federal judge’s decision to reinstate the collection after it was stayed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. The National Women’s Law Center and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement sued the OMB and the EEOC to bring back the wage-and-hour data collection.

The EEOC declined to comment on the status report Sept. 27.