U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

PRESS RELEASE
1-29-16

EEOC Announces Proposed Addition of Pay Data to Annual EEO-1 Reports

Pay Ranges and Hours Worked to Be Included, Making It Easier to Spot Trends and Pay Discrimination

WASHINGTON --The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today made public a proposed revision to the Employer Information Report (EEO-1) to include collecting pay data from employers, including federal contractors, with more than 100 employees. This new data will assist the agency in identifying possible pay discrimination and assist employers in promoting equal pay in their workplaces. The revised EEO-1 will be announced today in conjunction with the White House commemoration of the seventh anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

EEO-1 data provides the federal government with workforce profiles from private sector employers by race, ethnicity, sex, and job category. This proposal would add aggregate data on pay ranges and hours worked to the information collected, beginning with the September 2017 report. Proposed changes are available for inspection on the Federal Register website and will be officially published in the Federal Register on February 1, 2016. Members of the public have 60 days from that date April 1, 2016, to submit comments.

The new pay data would provide EEOC and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) of the Department of Labor with insight into pay disparities across industries and occupations and strengthen federal efforts to combat discrimination. This pay data would allow EEOC to compile and publish aggregated data that will help employers in conducting their own analysis of their pay practices to facilitate voluntary compliance. The agencies would use this pay data to assess complaints of discrimination, focus agency investigations, and identify existing pay disparities that may warrant further examination.

"More than 50 years after pay discrimination became illegal it remains a persistent problem for too many Americans," said EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang "Collecting pay data is a significant step forward in addressing discriminatory pay practices. This information will assist employers in evaluating their pay practices to prevent pay discrimination and strengthen enforcement of our federal anti-discrimination laws." 

"We can't know what we don't know. We can't deliver on the promise of equal pay unless we have the best, most comprehensive information about what people earn," said Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. "We expect that reporting this data will help employers to evaluate their own pay practices to prevent pay discrimination in their workplaces. The data collection also gives the Labor Department a more powerful tool to do its enforcement work, to ensure that federal contractors comply with fair pay laws and to root out discrimination where it does exist."

EEOC's current proposal is in response to recommendations from independent studies and the Commission's work with the President's National Equal Pay Task Force, which proposed new data collection requirements to combat pay discrimination in the workplace.

EEOC enforces the federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibit discrimination based on pay. More information about the proposed revisions to the EEO-1 report, including a Fact Sheet for Small Business and a Question and Answer document are available on EEOC's website at www.eeoc.gov.