To the surprise of no one who’s been following this story, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on September 11, 2019, that it would not renew its request for authorization from the Office of Management and Budget to collect EEO-1 Component 2 pay data after the current authorization expires. If you saw this news and are hoping it means you can skip filing your 2017 and 2018 EEO-1 Component 2 data by the current September 30 deadline, we’re here to both burst your bubble and tell you there’s hope for the future.

Bad news first — the Notice of Information Collection regarding the Employer Information Report (EEO-1) published in the Federal Register on September 11 does not affect the obligation of EEO-1 filers to submit Component 2 data for calendar years 2017 and 2018 by September 30, 2019. However, in the same notice, the EEOC said it would seek authorization only to continue collecting EEO-1 Component 1 data, as it has been since 1966. Thus, the good news is that the EEOC will not collect Component 2 pay data beyond what’s due on September 30 because, according to the EEOC in the notice, the “unproven utility” of the pay data is “far outweighed by the burden imposed on employers that must comply with the reporting obligation.”

So if you’re one of the estimated 90,000 EEO-1 filers, you’re still on the hook to submit your 2017 and 2018 Component 2 pay data by the September 30 deadline, but there’s hope you won’t have to go through this wasteful exercise again, at least not when you file your next EEO-1 report in March 2020. In the meantime, if you have any questions about submission of your Component 2 pay data, consult your employment counsel, as the clock is ticking.