Following the Money: The EEOC Requires Big Employers to Track Pay Data

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced last week that, starting in March 2018, it will collect summary pay data from private employers (including federal contractors and subcontractors) with 100 or more employees.  The pay data will be added to the annual Employer Information Report EEO-1, which already collects aggregate data about employees’ gender, race or ethnicity, and job category.  The EEOC first proposed collecting compensation data in January of this year as part of its efforts to root out pay discrimination.  Following a public hearing and comment period, the EEOC largely followed through on its proposal, in what the Secretary of Labor called “a critical step in delivering on the promise of equal pay.”

Who is affected?
Private employers (including federal contractors and subcontractors) with 100 or more employees must now include pay data in their annual EEO-1 reports.  Consistent with current practice, private employers that are not federal contractors or subcontractors, and that have fewer than 100 employees, need not file EEO-1s. 

Federal contractors and subcontractors with 50 to 99 employees need not report pay data, but must continue to file EEO-1s that tally employees by gender, race or ethnicity, and job category.  Federal contractors and subcontractors with fewer than 50 employees need not file EEO-1s.

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