As you'll recall from our extensive coverage of the EEO-1 pay data collection saga (which we previously reported on here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), private employers, including federal contractors, have been busy collecting and submitting EEO-1 pay data to the EEOC. The deadline for submissions was initially set for May 31, 2019, but has since been extended multiple times. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ruled that the EEOC must continue its collection efforts until it has collected from at least 98.3% of eligible reporters and must make all efforts to do so by January 31, 2020.

The EEOC and the OFCCP regularly share information between the agencies to avoid duplicative information collections and to minimize the burden on employers. Despite the lengths the EEOC has traveled to gather this pay data, last week the OFCCP issued a notice stating:

"OFCCP will not request, accept, or use Component 2 data, as it does not expect to find significant utility in the data given limited resources and its aggregated nature, but it will continue to receive EEO-1 Component 1 data."

Component 1 of the EEO-1 collects information regarding the number of employees by job category, and by sex, race, and ethnicity. Component 2 of the EEO-1 collects information regarding aggregated employee pay and hours worked. Specifically, the revised EEO-1 form requires reporting of aggregate W-2 earnings—including the total number of full- and part-time employees—and hours worked in twelve pay bands for each of the EEO-1's ten job categories. OFCCP's opinion of the EEO-1 pay data collection mirrors criticism the EEOC has received throughout this EEO-1 saga—that the pay data is not detailed enough to afford any meaningful analysis of unlawful pay discrimination.

OFCCP elaborated further, explaining that OFCCP receives up-to-date, employee-level pay data from federal contractors undergoing compliance evaluations. OFCCP then uses this detailed data to determine whether unlawful pay disparities exist between employees who are similarly situated under the contractors' pay practices. Thus, EEO-1 Component 2 pay data is simply not necessary for OFCCP.

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