[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 57 (Thursday, March 25, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14446-14447]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-7317]


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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Extension of Existing 
Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Notice of information collection under review; recordkeeping 
requirements under the uniform guidelines on employee selection 
procedures.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) 
announces that it intends to submit to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) a request to extend without change the existing collection 
of information listed below. The Commission is seeking public comments 
on the proposed extension.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be submitted on or before 
May 24, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be submitted to Frances M. Hart, Executive 
Officer, Executive Secretariat, Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission, 10th Floor, 1801 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20507. As 
a convenience to commentators, the Executive Secretariat will accept 
comments transmitted by facsimile (``FAX'') machine. The telephone 
number of the FAX receiver is (202) 663-4114. (This is not a toll free 
number.) Only comments of six or fewer pages will be accepted via FAX 
transmittal. This limitation is necessary to assure access to the 
equipment. Receipt of FAX transmittals will not be acknowledged, except 
that the sender may request confirmation of receipt by calling the 
Executive Secretariat staff at (202) 663-4078 (voice) or (202) 663-4074 
(TDD). (These are not toll-free numbers.) Copies of comments submitted 
by the public will be available for review at the Commission's library, 
Room 6502, 1801 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. between the hours of 
9:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joachim Neckere, Director, Program 
Research and Surveys Division, 1801 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 
20507, (202) 663-4958 (voice) or (202) 663-7063 (TDD).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Commission solicits public comment to 
enable it to:
    (1) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary

[[Page 14447]]

for the proper performance of the Commission's functions, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (2) Evaluate the accuracy of the Commission's estimate of the 
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
    (3) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and
    (4) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submission of responses.

Overview of This Information Collection

    Collection Title: Recordkeeping Requirements of the Uniform 
Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, 29 CFR part 1607.
    Form Number: None.
    Frequency of Report: None required.
    Type of Respondent: Businesses or other institutions, state or 
local governments, and farms.
    Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code: Multiple.
    Description of Affected Public: Any employer, labor organization, 
or employment agency covered by the federal equal employment 
opportunity laws.
    Responses: 666,000.
    Reporting Hours: 1,450,000.
    Number of Forms: None.
    Abstract: The records required to be maintained by 29 CFR 1607.4 
and 1607.15 are used by respondents to assure that they are complying 
with Title VII; by the Commission in investigating, conciliating, and 
litigating charges of employment discrimination; and by complainants in 
establishing violations of federal equal employment opportunity laws.
    Burden Statement: There are no reporting requirements associated 
with UGESP. Thus the only paperwork burden derives from the required 
recordkeeping. There are a total of 666,000 employers who have 15 or 
more employees and that are, therefore, subject to the recordkeeping 
requirement. Prior to the imposition of the UGESP recordkeeping 
requirement, the Commission proposed to conduct a practical utility 
survey to obtain estimates of burden hours. The intended survey was not 
approved by OMB, however, and the Commission relied instead on data 
obtained from the Business Roundtable study on ``Cost of Government 
Regulation'' conducted by the Arthur Anderson Company.
    In its initial estimate of recordkeeping burden the Commission 
relied on data from that study to derive the estimate of 1.91 million 
hours. In a subsequent submission to OMB for clearance of the UGESP 
collection, the Commission made an adjustment to reflect the increase 
in the incidence of computerized recordkeeping that had resulted in a 
reduction of total burden hours of approximately 300,000, and had 
brought the total burden down to 1.6 million hours.
    In the calculation of the initial burden of UGESP compliance, the 
estimated number of employees covered by the guidelines was 71.1 
million. Average cost per employee was taken to be $1.79. Since most of 
this cost, however, was for employers' administrative functions and 
represented the time spent in reviewing their selection processes for 
`adverse impact' and in reviewing and validating their testing 
procedures, the actual recordkeeping function was estimated to be in 
the range of 10 to 15 percent of the total per-employee cost, or 
between $.179 and $.2685 per employee. The Commission used these per-
employee costs, even though it believed that they were an over-
estimate. In the initial estimate the Commission used the higher end of 
the range.
    Subsequently in 1996, the Commission modified its burden estimate. 
It recognized the midpoint of the range or $.22 per employee as a 
better estimate of per-employee cost. The number of employees had also 
grown by 15 million since the initial estimate, increasing the number 
of employees covered to 86 million. Finally, from the private employer 
survey the Commission has been conducting for 30 years (the EEO-1), it 
knew that 29.7 percent of the private employers file their employment 
reports on magnetic tapes, on diskettes, or on computer printouts. 
Thus, at a minimum, that proportion of employers had computerized 
recordkeeping. From the same survey the Commission also learned that 
when records are computerized, the burden hours for reporting, and thus 
for recordkeeping, are about one-fifth of the burden hours associated 
with non-computerized records. Accordingly, the Commission's estimate 
of recordkeeping burden hours is as follows:

Computerized recordkeepers--(.29)  x  86 mil  x  ($.044) = $ 1,097,360
All other recordkeepers--(.71)  x  86 mil  x  ( $.22) = $13,433,200
    Total recordkeeping cost = $14,530,560

Total Burden Hours are then computed by dividing the total cost of 
recordkeeping by $10, the hourly rate of staff recordkeepers. The total 
new estimate of burden hours associated with the UGESP recordkeeping 
then is 1.45 million hours. Assumptions made in deriving the estimate 
are as follows:

Cost per employee for recordkeeping is $.22*
Cost per employee for computerized records is $.44*
Hourly rate of pay for recordkeeping staff is $10.00**

    * Both of these are derived from a private employer study.
    ** To the extent that this is an under-estimate, the reporting 
burden is over-estimated.

    Dated: March 19, 1999.

    For the Commission.
Ida L. Castro,
Chairwoman.
[FR Doc. 99-7317 Filed 3-21-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6570-01-M