The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a statement notifying covered entities to prepare to submit EEO-1 “Component 2” pay data for calendar year 2018 by the end of September. According to the Notice of Immediate Reinstatement of Revised EEO-1: Pay Data Collection, the EEOC expects to start collecting this data in mid-July, and in the meantime, filers must still submit their EEO-1 “Component 1” data for calendar year 2018 by the extended May 31, 2019 deadline. In light of these developments, covered employers should, at a minimum, prepare to file 2018 Component 2 pay and hours data by September 30, in addition to filing Component 1 data by May 31.

EEO-1 reporting requirements apply to employers with 100 or more employees and to certain federal contractors with 50 or more employees. The standard EEO-1 data (now referred to as Component 1) is annually filed during the first calendar quarter, based on a snapshot of the workforce by job category, gender, race, and ethnicity from the previous year’s fourth quarter.

In 2016, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) authorized the EEOC to also collect employee wage and hours data within 12 proposed pay bands, which is now referred to as Component 2. However, the OMB stayed the Component 2 collection in 2017, and there has been no obligation to provide Component 2 data pending the stay.

Component 2 was recently revived, however, in National Women’s Law Center, et al. v. Office of Management and Budget, et al., Case No. 17-cv-02458, pending in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On March 4, the court found that the OMB’s decision to stay Component 2 data collection was “arbitrary and capricious” and vacated the Component 2 stay. The court subsequently ordered the EEOC to collect Component 2 data for calendar year 2018 by September 30, 2019, to provide continuing reports on steps taken to implement the collection, and to issue a statement on its website notifying filers of the deadline.

In addition to requiring the EEOC to collect the 2018 data, the court also ordered the EEOC to either collect Component 2 data for 2017, or collect 2019 Component 2 data during the 2020 reporting period. The EEOC is required to notify the court of its decision on these two options by May 3.

Due to the government shutdown earlier this year, the typical EEO-1 Component 1 data filing deadline of March 31 has been postponed to May 31.