In a brief filed April 3, 2019, the government informed the court that EEOC could complete collection of the required EEO-1 Component 2 pay data by September 3o, 2019, but only if it utilized a third party data collector to do so.

The brief was filed in response to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan’s request that the government provide the court with its plan to comply with her March 4, 2019 ruling that over-turned the stay on the pay data reporting obligation.

The brief notes it would take “nine months to modify the EEOC’s current processes to support the collection of large amounts of sensitive Component 2 pay data from 2018” and as a result, the Agency determined that

modifying its current processes is not currently a viable option for collecting Component 2 data from employers.

Therefore, the Agency concluded

utilizing a data and analytics contractor is the only alternative.

The brief notes that while it can utilize a third party for the collection of the data, it would be at a cost in excess of $3 million and notes the Agency’s Chief Data Officer, Samuel (Chris) Haffer, warns

there is a serious risk that the expedited data collection process may yield poor quality data because of the limited quality control and quality assurance measures that would be implemented due to the expedited timeline.

There is no mention in the submission of when the pay data collection process would start.  Importantly, September 30, 2019 is the date when OMB approval for the pay data collection report expires.

We now have to wait for Judge Chutkan to assess the government’s response and issue a ruling on whether the Agency’s plan is acceptable.

Note – the current deadline to submit the “traditional” race and gender (Component 1) data remains May 31, 2019.

Stay tuned.