Key Dates:  May 31, 2019 and September 30, 2019

You may have been following the complex twists and turns involving the collection of employee pay and demographic data by the EEOC.  While the landscape seems to be constantly changing, pending a stay of the court order in National Women’s Law Center, et al., v. Office of Management and Budget, et al., Civil Action No. 17-cv-2458 (D.D.C.), covered manufacturers must file the 2018 EEO-1 Form (now called “Component 1” of the EEO-1) by May 31 and the expanded “Component 2” (the expanded demographic survey data) for both 2017 and 2018 by September 30.

Who has to file the Form EEO-1?  Any manufacturer employing 100 or more employees regardless of the identity of the companies with which it does business, or any manufacturer employing 50 or more employees and with $50,000 or more in annual contracts with the U.S. Government or a U.S. Government subcontractor, must file an annual EEO-1 form.

Historically, the deadline for this EEO-1 submission was September 30 of the year following the year of data collection.  Previously. the due date was changed to March 31 for the 2018 data, but due to the government shutdown in 2019, the EEOC extended this due date to May 31, 2019.  See announcement here.

Component 2 of the Form EEO-1 is the new pay component to the EEO-1 Form.  Component 2 requires the submission of pay and hours data, broken down by wage tier and demographics.

Whether to require manufacturers to submit Component 2 data has been a “on-again” “off-again” saga over the last few years.  As a result of litigation, a Court ordered the EEOC to collect Component 2 data by September 30, 2019.  The EEOC was given an option to collect similar data for either 2017 or 2019.  Surprisingly, given the EEOC had cited the burdens imposed on employers as a reason not to require any data be submitted at all, in early May the EEOC announced that it would collect Component 2 data for the year 2017.  If the EEOC had selected 2019 as the data collection year, the data would not have been due until May 31, 2020.  By selecting 2017, the EEOC is requiring manufacturers to submit that data by September 30 of this year.

This also means that manufacturers which filed an EEO-1 Form for 2017 (presumably by September 30, 2018) must now supplement that data by filing a Component 2 of the Form EEO-1 by September 30, 2019.

Wait – Maybe?  The story may not be over.  On May 3, the EEOC filed a notice of intent to appeal the court’s order.  This author would not be surprised to see an effort to further stay any data collection.