November 4 UPDATE:  On Oct. 29, 2019, a federal district court directed the EEOC to continue to do its best to complete the EEO-1 Component 2 data collection by January 31, 2020, overruling the EEOC’s unilaterally imposed November 11, 2019 deadline for employers to submit EEO-1 Component 2 data. The EEOC has complied with this order and posted on its Component 2 website that data collection will remain open past November 11, 2019, urging employers who have not yet filed to do so as soon as possible. The goal of reaching a 98.25% response rate for Component 2 data collection motivated the court to extend the deadline beyond November 11.  This means that if the EEOC achieves a 98.25% response rate prior to January 31, 2020, it can close its collection portal upon reaching that goal.  Accordingly, employers should not procrastinate. Consult with counsel to ensure compliance with the submission requirements.

Oct. 25, 2019: Over the past weeks, I’ve written a few times on the ongoing requirements and changing deadlines of the EEOC’s EEO-1 survey Component 2 data submission. Just yesterday, the EEOC announced a new deadline by which employers should submit their Component 2 data: November 11, 2019.  The EEOC requested that the court confirm this deadline, by which time the EEOC anticipates to have reached or exceeded its target percentage of a 72.7% response rate.

The case that originated the court order to collect Component 2 data, National Women’s Law Center, et al. v. Office of Management and Budget, et al., is ongoing. The National Women’s Law Center (the “NWLC”) raised an objection to the EEOC’s new deadline, arguing to the court that the EEOC must continue to collect Component 2 data until a 98.25% response rate is achieved. Awareness of this argument is important because if the court agrees with the NWLC, it is likely that the submission deadline would be further extended to collect more data.

We’ll continue to update you on any developments in the collection of EEO-1 Component 2 data. In the meantime, employers that haven’t yet submitted their Component 2 data should make every effort to do so before the current November 11 deadline. Consult with counsel to ensure compliance with the submission requirements and to answer any questions or concerns.