Seven years after the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law, the Obama Administration has announced additional steps to address the gender pay gap in this country. Specifically, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has proposed changes to the Employer Information Report (EEO-1) that would require businesses with more than 100 employees to submit detailed salary and pay information for each employee broken down by gender, race and ethnicity. The White House says the goal of this proposal is to “focus public enforcement of our equal pay laws and provide better insight into discriminatory pay practices across industries and occupations.” Both the EEOC and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs would have access to the pay data for enforcement purposes.
The proposed Revision to the EEO-1 was published in the Federal Register on February 1, 2016. Interested parties have until April 1, 2016 to submit comments. While the rulemaking process is expected to be complete by September 2016, affected employers will not need to submit the additional salary and pay information until 2017 if the Revision is adopted as is.
To prepare for the new reporting requirements, employers with more than 100 employees should begin evaluating their pay practices now to identify any areas of pay disparity that should be addressed before the 2017 reporting period begins. Although this is information that employers should routinely examine and keep records of, even if just to be aware of potential inequities in salary structures and to be able to defend themselves against pay disparity claims, the revised reporting requirement will add a significant additional burden on companies required to complete the EEO-1.
The proposed Revision to the EEO-1 can be found here.