Initial Notice of Immediate Reinstatement of Revised EEO-1 Pay Data Collection

The EEOC began sending out their “Initial Notice of Immediate Reinstatement of Revised EEO-1:  Pay Data Collection for Calendar Years 2017 and 2018” via email, alerting companies of the requirement to file Component 2 EEO-1 reports by September 30, 2019.  The next communication from the EEOC will be a letter sent later this month via USPS that will contain the company’s User ID.

Please be advised that companies will receive their User ID from NORC via notification letter mailed through USPS and to the registered EEO-1 email address on record. Password will be setup during initial entry into the Component 2 EEO-1 Online Filing System and after User ID, FEIN, and email address is verified.

The web-based portal for the submission of the Component 2 EEO-1 reports for 2017 and 2018 will be active by July 15, 2019 via the Component 2 EEO-1 Online Filing System. Employers will be notified when this filing system is available. At this time, employers can find more information about the Component 2 EEO-1 Compensation Data Collection at https://eeoccomp2.norc.org.

Please note: Although the Department of Justice filed a Notice of Appeal in this lawsuit, that notice does not stay the district court orders or alter EEO-1 filers' obligations to submit 2017 and 2018 Component 2 data. EEO-1 filers should begin preparing to submit Component 2 data.

Employers Must Submit EEO-1 Pay Data by September 30

A federal judge ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to collect employee pay data—sorted by race, ethnicity and sex—by Sept. 30.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including the National Women's Law Center, wanted the EEOC to collect two years of data, just as the agency was supposed to before the government halted the collection in 2017.

Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with the plaintiffs. She gave the EEOC the option of submitting 2017 pay data along with the 2018 information by the Sept. 30 deadline or submitting 2019 pay data during the 2020 reporting period. The EEOC has until May 3 to notify the court of its choice.

Either way, employers will need to submit 2018 pay data by Sept. 30.

Chutkan chastised the government for not taking any meaningful steps during the stay or litigation to prepare for collection.

The agency said it could make the collection portal available to employers by July 15 and would provide information and training to employers prior to that date, according to documents filed with the court.

Source: SHRM

EEO-1 Filing Delayed

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has posted updates to their EEO-1 Reporting page. According to the site, the opening of the EEO-1 submission portal has been postponed until March 1, 2019. As a result, the deadline to submit the 2018 EEO-1 Report has been extended to May 31, 2019. The EEOC web site also indicates that further details and needed instructions will be forthcoming to assist employers with filing.

Source: EEOC.gov

Government Shutdown Continues

Although the partial shutdown of the United States Government is now entering its fourth week, many agencies are still funded and operational. Other have partial funding and continue to offer vital services as permitted by funding. Departments lacking funds include the Department of Homeland Security, Treasury and Justice to name a few.

The U.S. Department of Labor offices remain open and unaffected by the partial shutdown due to funding already received. This means that the Office of Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is fully functional at this time, audits currently underway will continue to be reviewed and issuance of scheduling letters may continue.

Unlike the OFCCP, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) only has limited availability and such is posted on their homepage. All digital portals are closed and the agency is unable to staff their hotlines. There are no references to the shutdown on the EEO-1 Reporting page, so it is uncertain at this time how or if the government shutdown will affect the processing of 2018 EEO-1 Reports due March 31, 2019.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continues to list E-Verify on their website as expired or suspended until funds are received or reauthorization is provided by Congress. E-Verify is a free internet-based system that allows businesses and employers to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. While the system is down, employers must still complete a Form I-9 to verify an employee's work authorization within 3 days of beginning work as new submissions or cases cannot be initiated at this time.

Other programs offered by USCIS that continue to be unavailable are the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program, Non-Minister Religious Workers and Conrad 30 Waiver Program for J-1 Medical Doctors.

Source: DOL; USCIS; Department of Homeland Security; EEOC

Filing Deadline Extended for EEO-1 Report

Filing Deadline Extended for EEO-1 Reporting

This week the EEO-1 Joint Reporting Committee sent out the following email notice extending the reporting deadline:

We have received a number of inquiries from employers requesting additional time to file their 2017 EEO-1 Reports. 

In response to these requests we are EXTENDING THE FILING DEADLINE FOR THE 2017 EEO-1 SURVEY TO FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2018.

IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SUBMITTED YOUR 2017 EEO-1 REPORT, YOU MAY DISREGARD THIS EMAIL.

If you need additional information on filing the 2017 EEO-1 Report, please visit the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's website by clicking on the following link: 2017 EEO-1 Survey.

You may also contact the EEO-1 Joint Reporting Committee at 1-877-392-4647 with any questions or concerns.

Thank you.

EEO-1 JOINT REPORTING COMMITTEE

Source: US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Call THOMAS HOUSTON for assistance!

If your organization still needs to file EEO-1 Reports, please call THOMAS HOUSTON at 954.358.0208 or email us at info@thomashouston.com.

IMPORTANT! EEO-1 Reporting Update

In a letter on August 29, 2017 to acting EEOC Chair, Victoria Lipnic, the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OMB/OIRA) called for a review and stay on the implementation of the revised EEO-1 form which would have required covered employers to provide employee W-2 data by EEO-1 category. This revised EEO-1 form is no longer available via the EEOC website.

The previous EEO-1 (component 1) version requiring only demographic data will be utilized during the stay. Rather than reverting to the September filing deadline, the federal government is retaining the new filing deadline of March 31, 2018. The March filing date was previously chosen to capture W-2 wage data with ease in the revised EEO-1 form.

Requirements for filing EEO-1 Reporting include federal contractors with 50 or more employees and covered employers with 100 or more employees. Any payroll period between October 1, 2017 - December 2017 can be used for the 2017 EEO-1 Reporting.

This stay is not a repeal of the regulation itself, but a stay on implementation. Among OMB/OIRA's concerns was that the new compensation data collection was unnecessarily burdensome, lacked practical utility, and that data privacy and confidentiality issues raised had not been adequately addressed. The EEOC will be required to submit to OMB a new information collection package for future EEO-1 form revisions.

Acting EEOC Chair Lipnic issued a statement that included the following: "Going forward, we at the EEOC will review the order and our options. I do hope that this decision will prompt a discussion of other more effective solutions to encourage employers to review their compensation practices to ensure equal pay and close the wage gap. I stand ready to work with Congress, federal agencies, and all stakeholders to achieve that goal."

During this time of review, it is possible that the revised EEO-1 filing will be modified to be less burdensome on employers, while enhancing confidentiality and privacy safeguards. Clients are advised to review their HRIS capability to generate compensation data and hours worked in various formats and time frames.

In this area of consulting, in addition to submission of EEO-1 filings, THOMAS HOUSTON also offers:

• Comparative Compensation Reports on Base Pay, Bonuses, Total Cash Compensation (aggregated data required by the DOL/OFCCP in Item 19 of the Scheduling Letter), and W-2 Box 1 wages.
• Client-specific in-depth compensation audits to ensure nondiscrimination, performed under attorney-client privilege and protections.

Contact us at info@thomashouston.com for further information.

Links to further EEOC information is below:

Lipnic Memorandum:

http://www.governmentcontractorcomplianceupdate.com/files/2017/08/Lipnic-Memorandum.pdf

Letter to EEOC from OMB/OIRA:

https://www.reginfo.gov/public/jsp/Utilities/Review_and_Stay_Memo_for_EEOC.pdf

EEOC News Release:

https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/wysk/eeo1-pay-data.cfm

EEO-1 and VETS-4212 Reporting Information

The 2017 VETS-4212 reporting season HAS BEGUN!

Data to be collected should be a payroll period in July or August

The 2017 EEO-1 reporting season has MOVED!

Data to be collected should be a payroll period in
October, November, or December

2017 W-2 Pay Data to be included in NEW EEO-1 Reports

Federal contractors with 50-99 employees not required
to provide the W-2 pay data

NEW Deadline for filing EEO-1 Reports is March 31, 2018

This change in reporting requires contractors to pull two different sets of data for the different reporting periods outlined above.

Access THOMAS HOUSTON's

2017 EEO-1 and VETS-4212 Reporting Webcast

For All Updated Information!

You can access our webcast via our website at:
http://www.thomashouston.com/newsandevents.html

THOMAS HOUSTON can assist you in the preparation and submission of the EEO-1 and VETS-4212 Reports. For additional information or pricing for these reporting services, call 1.800.330.9000 Ext. 110 or contact our Sales Team at info@thomashouston.com

New Steps to Advance Equal Pay

On the anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, President Obama highlighted several actions that his Administration is taking to further advance equal pay for all workers.

• EEOC Action on Pay Data Collection:  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in partnership with the Department of Labor, is publishing a proposal to annually collect summary pay data by gender, race, and ethnicity from businesses with 100 or more employees.  The proposal would cover over 63 million employees.  This step – stemming from a recommendation of the President’s Equal Pay Task Force and a Presidential Memorandum issued in April 2014 – will help focus public enforcement of equal pay laws and provide better insight into discriminatory pay practices across industries and occupations. It expands on and replaces an earlier plan by the Department of Labor to collect similar information from federal contractors.

The EEOC is proposing revisions to its longstanding EEO-1 form to require all employers with 100 or more employees, not just contractors, who currently submit the EEO-1 to submit additional summary data on wages paid to their employees, including by gender, race, and ethnicity. As currently proposed, this information would be reported across 10 job categories and by 12 pay bands, and will not require the reporting of specific salaries of each individual employee.  The proposal is broader than one previously published by the Department of Labor, which would have applied only to federal contractors.

This new policy will encourage and facilitate greater voluntary compliance by employers with existing federal pay laws – by evaluating how they are currently paying their employees.  It will also assist the EEOC, and in the case of contractors the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), in better focusing investigations on employers that are unlawfully shortchanging workers based on their gender, race, or ethnicity.  In addition to expanding the scope of the data collection, the new approach will utilize an existing data collection mechanism familiar to most businesses, as many commenters had proposed.  In so doing, the proposed revisions have the potential to lower the compliance burden on businesses and the implementation costs to government. Under the proposal, employers would first submit pay data as of the September 30, 2017 EEO-1 filing deadline.

The proposed revision of the EEO-1 form will follow the normal procedures and public comment process required under the Paperwork Reduction Act before it can be implemented.  Anyone who wants to comment on the proposal will have 60 days after publication in the Federal Register to do so.  You can find additional information on the EEOC's website here.

Equal Pay Report would help combat pay discrimination

Rule to collect summary pay data from federal contractors proposed by US Labor Department 

 

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a proposed rule requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to submit an annual Equal Pay Report on employee compensation to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Under the terms of the proposal, this requirement would apply to companies that file EEO-1 reports, have more than 100 employees and hold federal contracts or subcontracts worth $50,000 or more for at least 30 days. Through the Equal Pay Report, OFCCP would be able to collect summary employee pay and demographic data using existing government reporting frameworks.

President Obama signed a presidential memorandum on April 8 instructing the secretary of labor to propose a rule within 120 days to collect summary compensation data from federal contractors and subcontractors. The proposal tabled at the Federal Register today reflects criteria set forth by the president to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of OFCCP’s enforcement programs, minimize the burden placed on federal contractors, and use data to encourage greater voluntary compliance with the law. The proposed Equal Pay Report would also help OFCCP direct its enforcement resources toward contractors whose summary compensation data suggests potential pay violations.

The rule will be published in the Federal Register on Aug. 8, and all comments must be received by Nov. 6, 2014. To read and comment on the proposed rule, please visit http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/EPR.

OFCCP enforces Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. These three laws require those who do business with the federal government, contractors and subcontractors, to follow the fair and reasonable standard that they not discriminate in employment on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability or status as a protected veteran. For more information, please call OFCCP’s toll-free helpline at 800-397-6251 or visit http://www.dol.gov/ofccp.

Source: DOL

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

 

Trouble with your EEO-1 Extension Request?

It may be because the process for requesting an extension has changed beginning with the 2012 EEO-1 reporting period.

Although the  extension instructions have not changed on the EEO-1 website: 

EEOC advises that,  beginning with the 2012 EEO-1 reporting period, an extension request must be made by using the “Extension” button that is located on the company's online database:

For information on the EEO-1 / VETS reporting services offered by THOMAS HOUSTON associates, inc., please call (800) 330-9000 or click here to schedule a convenient time to receive a call from a member of our Sales Team.

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

Reminder – EEO-1 Report Filing is Due September 30

There has been no change to the EEO-1 Report filing deadline.   This annual report must be filed no later than September 30 unless a specific extension request has been made.

Although the filing deadline for VETS-100 reports in the 2012 cycle has been extended to October 31, 2012, THERE HAS BEEN NO CHANGE TO THE FILING DUE DATE ON EEO-1 Reports.

For more information on the VETS-100 / EEO-1 reporting services offered by THOMAS HOUSTON associates, inc., please call (800) 330-9000 or click here to schedule a convenient time to receive a call from a member of our Sales Team.

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

26 Days and Counting - Have You Filed?

EEO-1 and VETS reports are required to be filed by September 30

THOMAS HOUSTON associates, inc. offers the following services to assist in meeting these filing requirements:

• Self Identifications Forms - to collect reporting information.
• EEO-1 Registration and Extension Requests - as part of on-line filing, THOMAS HOUSTON will complete the first time registration process and/or file an extension request on your behalf.*
• VETS Report Determination - a review of contract specifications to determine which VETS report(s) are required.
• Data Collection and File Retention - a guideline is provided to enable a more efficient data collection process. One data set can be used for both the EEO-1 and VETS 100 reports. Data may be uploaded and stored, using a secure site, unique to your company. This site will also house completed reports for easy access.
• Multi-Establishment Structuring - an interactive review of data is completed to determine the most accurate reporting breakdown.
• Retrieval of VETS Company Identification Numbers - THOMAS HOUSTON will contact the VETS customer service line on your behalf, with questions, including retrieval of company identification number.
• Minimum and Maximum Calculation - as part of VETS reporting THOMAS HOUSTON will calculate these numbers using data from your selected 12 month period.
• Data Review - draft reports are provided prior to submission.
• Submission - all reports are filed using the on-line method.

*There is no registration process for VETS reporting and to date, no extension options.

Please contact us today! In order to ensure on-time submissions, THOMAS HOUSTON associates, inc. has established a data receipt deadline date of September 7th.

For information on EEO-1/VETS Reporting Services, please call (800) 330-9000, or click here to schedule a convenient time to receive a call from a member of our Sales Team.

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

EEO-1 Reports can Trigger OFCCP Audits

Source:  Lexology article by Michael T. Miller, Briggs and Morgan

Private employers with 100 or more employees are required each year to file an EEO-1 report with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Joint Reporting Committee.  29 C.F.R. § 1602.07.  Related entities that constitute a single enterprise who together employ at least 100 employees are also required to file.  Generally, the form requires employers to provide summary data as to the gender and race of their workforce in ten broad job categories.

In addition to companies with 100 or more employees, all federal contractors or first-tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and a single government contract of $50,000.00 or more are also required to file an EEO-1 report.  These are the same threshold number of employees and contract amount that triggers a contractor’s or subcontractor’s obligation to develop an affirmative action plan.  41 C.F.R. § 60-2.1.

Section C of the EEO-1 report form inquires as to whether an employer is such a government contractor or subcontractor in its question 3.  Employers who are contractors at these thresholds should answer the question by checking the “yes” box.  Many times, however, employers who are not government contractors or who do not meet these thresholds rush completion of the EEO-1 form and inaccurately answer this question in the affirmative.  Doing so tells the federal government that the company is a government contractor subject to affirmative action plan requirements.  It should not then be a surprise if the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) notifies the company that it is scheduling an audit of the company’s affirmative action program.

Takeaway:  To avoid miscommunicating government contractor status, employers should carefully complete the annual EEO-1 report

This information is intended to be educational and should not be considered legal advice on any specific matter.

________________________________________________________________

THOMAS HOUSTON associates, inc. provides assistance in EEO-1 and VETS reporting. For more information please call 1 (800) 330-9000 or click here to schedule a convenient time to receive a call from a member of our Sales Team