“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porsches. I must make amends!” — Janis Joplin

All private-sector employers with 100 or more employees and all federal contractors with 50 or more employees and at least one federal contract worth at least $50,000 are required by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) to file an annual EEO-1 report. For the uninitiated, the annual EEO-1 report presents a breakdown as of a certain payroll date of your workforce by race/ethnicity and gender in each of 10 enumerated occupational categories, ranging from your top executives (EEO-1 category 1.1) to first- and midlevel managers (1.2) to professionals (2) to technicians (3) to sales workers (4) to administrative support (5) to craft workers (6) to operatives (7) to laborers (8) to service workers (9).

This year, the EEOC’s online reporting portal for 2021 EEO-1 reports opened later than usual, on April 12, with a shorter-than-usual reporting period — only five weeks — and an earlier-than-usual reporting deadline of May 17. The EEOC initially said the May 17 deadline would not be extended, contrary to previous annual EEO-1 reporting cycles when the deadline was extended more than once and, in some years, several times for several months. No explanation was given for the shorter filing period or the refusal to extend the filing period. However, there is a good deal of speculation that the abbreviated period for filing 2021 EEO-1 reports is related to the EEOC’s plan to reintroduce the EEO-1 Component 2 pay data report when the 2022 EEO-1 reporting cycle rolls around next year.

Despite the EEOC’s initial bluster, if you are required to file a 2021 EEO-1 report and missed the May 17 deadline, you have been given a second chance. The Commission recently announced that covered employers (those required to file the report) that failed or were unable to meet the deadline will be given five more weeks, until June 21, to submit and certify their 2021 EEO-1 reports. The EEOC also announced that covered employers who failed to meet the May 17 deadline will receive a “notice of failure to file.” If you receive such a notice, don’t despair. It just means you have until June 21 to get your report in. At this time, the June 21 date appears to be a hard deadline, as the EEOC further announced that the 2021 EEO-1 report portal will close for good after June 21 and all covered employers that fail to file by that date will be deemed to be not in compliance.

Thus, if you missed the May 17 deadline for filing your 2021 EEO-1 report, follow this link to make amends.