[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 135 (Thursday, July 14, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45479-45497]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-16692]


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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

[3046-007]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice of Submission 
for OMB Review, Final Comment Request: Revision of the Employer 
Information Report (EEO-1)

AGENCY: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), 
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) 
announces that it is submitting to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) a request for a three-year PRA approval of a revised Employer 
Information Report (EEO-1) data collection. Employers have submitted 
the EEO-1 report for over fifty years. The Commission is responsible 
for PRA compliance for the EEO-1, although it is a joint data 
collection to meet the statistical needs of both the EEOC and the U.S. 
Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs 
(OFCCP). This PRA submission has two components. Component 1 describes 
the data now collected by the currently approved EEO-1, which is data 
about employees' ethnicity, race, and sex by job category (demographic 
data). Component 2 describes the W-2 (Box 1) and hours-worked data that 
will be added to the EEO-1 with OMB's approval under this PRA request 
(pay data). EEO-1 respondents must comply with the 2016 filing 
requirement for the currently approved EEO-1.

DATES: Submit comments on or before August 15, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Comments on this notice must be submitted to Joseph B. Nye, 
Policy Analyst, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of 
Management and Budget, 725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503, email 
[email protected]. Commenters are also encouraged to send 
comments to the EEOC online at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions on the Web site for 
submitting comments. In addition, the EEOC's Executive Secretariat will 
accept comments in hard copy by delivery by COB on August 15, 2016. 
Hard copy comments should be sent to Bernadette Wilson, Acting 
Executive Officer, EEOC, 131 M Street NE., Washington, DC 20507. 
Finally, the Executive Secretariat will accept comments totaling six or 
fewer pages by facsimile (``fax'') machine before the same deadline at 
(202) 663-4114. (This is not a toll-free number.) 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) 663-4070 (voice) or (202) 663-4074 (TTY). (These are not 
toll-free telephone numbers.) The EEOC will post online at http://www.regulations.gov all comments submitted via this Web site, in hard 
copy, or by fax to the Executive Secretariat. These comments will be 
posted without change, including any personal information you provide. 
However, the EEOC reserves the right to refrain from posting libelous 
or otherwise inappropriate comments including those that contain 
obscene, indecent, or profane language; that contain threats or 
defamatory statements; that contain hate speech directed at race, 
color, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, or genetic 
information; or that promote or endorse services or products. All 
comments received, including any personal information provided, also 
will be available for public inspection during normal business hours by 
appointment only at the EEOC Headquarters' Library, 131 M Street NE., 
Washington, DC 20507. Upon request, individuals who require assistance 
viewing comments will be provided appropriate aids such as readers or 
print magnifiers. To schedule an appointment, contact EEOC Library 
staff at (202) 663-4630 (voice) or (202) 663-4641 (TTY). (These are not 
toll-free numbers.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ronald Edwards, Director, Program 
Research and Surveys Division, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 
131 M Street NE., Room 4SW30F, Washington, DC 20507; (202) 663-4949 
(voice) or (202) 663-7063 (TTY). Requests for this notice in an 
alternative format should be made to the Office of Communications and 
Legislative Affairs at (202) 663-4191 (voice) or (202) 663-4494 (TTY).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

I. Background
II. The EEOC's Legal Authority To Propose This EEO-1 Report
    A. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

[[Page 45480]]

    B. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
III. Revisions to the EEO-1 Report Are Necessary for the Enforcement 
of Title VII, the EPA, and Executive Order 11246
IV. Who Will Report Pay Data on the Revised EEO-1
    A. Employers That Currently File the EEO-1
    B. 60-Day Notice: Which Employers Would File Pay Data
    C. Public Comments
    D. 30-Day Notice: Employers With 100 or More Employees Will File 
Components 1 & 2
V. When To File: Filing Deadline and Workforce Snapshot Period
    A. 60-Day Notice
    B. Public Comments
    C. 30-Day Notice
    1. Deadline for Filing the EEO-1
    2. ``Workforce Snapshot'' Period
VI. What Pay Data To Report: Measure of Pay for the EEO-1
    A. 60-Day Notice: Options for Measuring Pay
    B. Public Comments
    1. Supporting the Use of W-2 Income
    2. Opposing the Use of W-2 Income
    C. 30-Day Notice: W-2 (Box 1) Income Is the Measure of Pay
    1. W-2 Income and Employee Choice
    2. Supplemental Income Is Important and May Be Linked to 
Discrimination
    3. Bridging HRIS and Payroll
VII. What Data To Report: Hours Worked
    A. 60-Day Notice
    B. Public Comments
    C. 30-Day Notice
    1. The Importance of Collecting Hours Worked
    2. Defining ``Hours Worked''
    3. Reporting Hours Worked for Nonexempt Employees
    4. Reporting Hours Worked for Exempt Employees
VIII. How To Report Data in Component 2: Pay Bands and Job 
Categories
    A. 60-Day Notice
    B. Public Comments
    C. 30-Day Notice
IX. How the EEOC Will Use W-2 and Hours-Worked Data
    A. 60-Day Notice
    B. Public Comments
    C. 30-Day Notice
    1. Early Assessment of Charges of Discrimination
    2. EEOC Publications Analyzing Aggregate EEO-1 Data
    3. EEOC Training on the Pay Data Collection
X. Confidentiality of EEO-1 Data
    A. 60-Day Notice
    B. Public Comments
    C. 30-Day Notice
    1. Legal Confidentiality
    a. EEOC
    b. OFCCP
    2. Data Protection and Security
XI. Paperwork Reduction Act Burden Estimates
    A. Background
    B. 60-Day Notice
    C. 30-Day Notice
    1. Annual Burden Hours
    2. Hourly Wage Rates
XII. Formal Paperwork Reduction Act Statement
    A. Overview of Information Collection
    1. 2016 Overview of Information Collection--Component 1
    2. 2017 and 2018 Overview of Information Collection--Components 
1 and 2
    a. Component 1 (Demographic and Job Category Data)
    b. Components 1 and 2 (Demographic and Job Category Data Plus W-
2 and Hours Worked Data)
    B. 30-Day Notice PRA Burden Statement

I. Background

    This final proposal to supplement the longstanding EEO-1 employer 
information report (currently approved by OMB under Control Number 
3046-0007) is intended to support the EEOC's pay discrimination 
investigations by collecting employer- and gender-, race-, and 
ethnicity-specific pay data to identify pay disparities that may result 
from discriminatory practices or policies. This Notice provides 
stakeholders with their second opportunity to comment on this proposal.
    The EEOC published the first notice of this proposed revision in 
the Federal Register on February 1, 2016, for a 60-day comment period 
(the ``60-Day Notice'').\1\ It announced which employers would be 
required to file pay data, what data would be collected, when the due 
date would be, how the data would be analyzed, and how the proposed 
collection and analysis would protect confidentiality and privacy. As 
required, the 60-Day Notice estimated the cost to employers of 
completing the current EEO-1 (Component 1) and the proposed revision of 
the EEO-1 (Components 1 and 2).
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    \1\ 81 FR 5113 (Feb. 1, 2016).
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    The EEOC received 322 timely public comments in response to the 60-
Day Notice. The comments were submitted by individual members of the 
public, employers, employer associations, Members of Congress, civil 
rights groups, women's organizations, labor unions, industry groups, 
law firms, and human resources organizations. Over 120 of the 322 
comments were part of mass mail campaigns mostly supporting the 
proposal, although one mass mail campaign opposed the proposal. The 
mass mail campaigns included submissions from organizations that 
collected up to thousands of signatures from their members or 
supporters.
    The Commission also held a public hearing on March 16, 2016, and 
heard from 15 witnesses representing a range of stakeholders including 
employers, employees, and academics. The Commission reviewed their 
detailed written submissions, heard them discuss their different 
perspectives on the proposal, and asked them questions.\2\
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    \2\ The press release on the hearing is available at EEOC, EEOC 
Hears Wide Range of Views at Public Hearing on Proposed Changes to 
EEO-1 Form (Mar. 16, 2016), https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/3-16-16.cfm. The statements and biographies of the witnesses 
are available at EEOC, Hearing of March 16, 2016--Public Input into 
the Proposed Revisions to the EEO-1 Report, http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/3-16-16/.
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    Pursuant to the required procedures under the PRA, the Commission 
now publishes its final proposal to supplement the EEO-1 for a second 
round of public comments, to last 30 days (hence the ``30-Day 
Notice''). The EEOC also is formally submitting the proposed EEO-1 
revisions to OMB for consideration and decision.
    This 30-Day Notice summarizes the 60-Day Notice, describes the 
public comments, and explains the Commission's decisions. In making 
these decisions, the Commission took into account all of the hearing 
testimony and public comments. The Commission also assessed government 
data regarding components of compensation in United States workplaces, 
relevant academic literature on compensation practices and on 
discrimination, and the conclusions of two studies commissioned by the 
EEOC to examine how and whether to implement a pay data collection.\3\ 
This 30-Day Notice sets forth the EEOC's conclusions about the ways the 
proposed pay data collection will be used to enhance and increase the 
efficiency of enforcement efforts while facilitating employer self-
evaluation and voluntary compliance.
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    \3\ The first EEOC-commissioned study, resulting in a 2012 
report from the National Research Council, National Academy of 
Sciences (NAS Report), outlined the potential value for EEOC 
enforcement of collecting pay data from employers by sex, race, and 
national origin through a report such as the EEO-1. National 
Research Council, 2012. Collecting Compensation Data from Employers. 
Washington, DC: National Academies Press, http://www.nap.edu/read/13496/chapter/1#ii. The second study, reported by an EEOC contractor 
in 2015, provided detailed analysis of different approaches to 
implementing the report and included assessments of different 
statistical analyses for employer data. Sage Computing, EEOC Pay 
Pilot Study (September, 2015), http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/pay-pilot-study.pdf.
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II. The EEOC's Legal Authority To Propose This EEO-1 Report

    In written comments in response to the 60-Day Notice, several 
interested parties questioned whether the EEOC has legal authority to 
collect pay data and whether the agency should have conducted a formal 
rulemaking to impose a pay data reporting requirement. As explained in 
more

[[Page 45481]]

detail below, the EEOC has the legal authority to collect pay data 
under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended (Title 
VII),\4\ without conducting a formal rulemaking because the EEOC is 
responsible for enforcing federal laws that prohibit wage 
discrimination on the basis of sex, race and national origin, and Title 
VII grants the EEOC broad authority to collect data from employers 
regarding compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws. The EEOC 
has exercised this statutory authority by implementing a regulation to 
establish the EEO-1 reporting requirement, and now administers the EEO-
1 report pursuant to the PRA.
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    \4\ 42 U.S.C. 2000e, et seq.
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A. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

    The EEOC is responsible for enforcing Title VII, which prohibits 
all employment discrimination, including pay discrimination, based on 
race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.\5\ The EEOC also 
enforces other federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, 
including the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which prohibits certain 
gender-based pay discrimination.\6\
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    \5\ Id.
    \6\ 29 U.S.C. 206(d).
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    The EEOC's authority to promulgate the EEO-1 report is found in 
section 709(c) of Title VII, which requires employers covered by Title 
VII to make and keep records relevant to whether unlawful employment 
practices have been or are being committed, to preserve such records, 
and to produce reports as the Commission prescribes by regulation or 
order, after public hearing, ``as reasonable, necessary, or appropriate 
for the enforcement of this subchapter or the regulations . . . 
thereunder.'' \7\ The Commission prescribes the EEO-1 report by 
regulation at 29 CFR part 1602, subpart B, which requires private 
employers with 100 or more employees to ``file [annually] with the 
Commission or its delegate executed copies of [the] . . . EEO-1 
[report] in conformity with the directions set forth in the form and 
accompanying instructions.'' The EEOC administers the EEO-1 jointly 
with OFCCP, which enforces the employment discrimination prohibitions 
of Executive Order 11246, as amended, for federal contractors and 
subcontractors (contractors), including specific provisions regarding 
pay discrimination and transparency.\8\ OFCCP's regulations require 
contractors to submit ``complete and accurate reports on Standard Form 
100 (EEO-1) . . . or such form as may hereafter be promulgated in its 
place.'' \9\ The Joint Reporting Committee, composed of the EEOC and 
OFCCP and located at the EEOC, administers the EEO-1 as a single data 
collection to meet the statistical needs of both agencies while 
avoiding duplication.
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    \7\ 42 U.S.C. 2000e-8(c).
    \8\ E.O. 11246, as amended, 30 FR 12319, 41 CFR 60-1.7(a). 
Executive Order 13665 amends E.O. 11246 to promote pay transparency 
for federal contractors, protect employees and job applicants, and 
make it possible for employees and job applicants to share 
information about their pay without fear of discrimination. E.O. 
13665, 79 FR 20749, available at: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/DCPD-201400250/pdf/DCPD-201400250.pdf. OFCCP's recently adopted 
final rule on sex discrimination (OFCCP Rule on Discrimination on 
the Basis of Sex) addresses a number of sex-based barriers to equal 
employment and fair pay. The rule requires contractors to provide 
equal opportunities ``without regard to sex.'' 41 CFR part 60-20. 
See also 81 FR 39108, 39125-39129 (June 15, 2016).
    \9\ 41 CFR 60-1.7(a).
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B. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

    Since 1995, the EEO-1 report also has been governed by the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), which provides standards for 
federal data collections and requires periodic Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) review and renewal.\10\ The EEOC is responsible for 
maintaining PRA approval of the EEO-1.
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    \10\ According to the OMB, ``collection of information'' may 
include: (1) Requests for information to be sent to the government, 
such as forms (e.g., the IRS 1040), written reports (e.g., grantee 
performance reports), and surveys (e.g., the Census); (2) 
recordkeeping requirements (e.g., OSHA requirements that employers 
maintain records of workplace accidents); and third-party or public 
disclosures (e.g., nutrition labeling requirements for food).
    Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Memorandum 
for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies and Independent 
Regulatory Agencies, Information Collection under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (Apr. 7, 2010), https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/inforeg/PRAPrimer_04072010.pdf; See also 5 
CFR 1320.3(c).
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    The EEOC, like other federal agencies subject to the PRA, generally 
follows a multi-step process for maintaining OMB approval of an 
information collection, which culminates in OMB deciding if the 
proposed collection ``strikes a balance between collecting information 
necessary to fulfill [the agency's] statutory mission[ ] and guarding 
against unnecessary or duplicative information that imposes unjustified 
costs on the American public.'' \11\ The first step is for the agency 
to publish a proposed information collection for a 60-day public 
comment period, which ran from February 1 to April 1, 2016 for this 
EEO-1 revision.\12\ Then, in light of the public comments and its 
statutory mission, the agency formulates a final data collection, which 
it publishes in the Federal Register and submits to OMB for approval, 
subject to a 30-day public comment period.\13\ The current document, 
which has been approved by a majority of the Commission, is the EEOC's 
30-Day Notice for the revised EEO-1.
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    \11\ Id.
    \12\ 81 FR 5113 (Feb. 1, 2016).
    \13\ 44 U.S.C. 3507(a)(1).
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    The EEOC has consistently used the PRA renewal process to change 
the EEO-1. Most recently, in 2006, the PRA process was used to 
significantly revise the EEO-1 by adding a new race category, requiring 
employers to ask employees to self-identify by race and ethnicity, and 
requiring employers to ask about ethnicity (Hispanic or Latino) in a 
separate question.\14\ The 2006 EEO-1 revision also added a new job 
category.\15\
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    \14\ EEOC, EEOC Implements Finals Revisions to EEO-1 Report 
(Jan. 27, 2006), https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/archive/1-27-06.html; See also 70 FR 71294 (Nov. 28, 2005); OMB approved 
these changes on January 25, 2006, Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=200511-3046-001#.
    \15\ Id.
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III. Revisions to the EEO-1 Report Are Necessary for the Enforcement of 
Title VII, the EPA, and Executive Order 11246

    Some public comments opposing the EEOC's proposal in the 60-Day 
Notice questioned whether there are still pay disparities that are 
caused by discrimination linked to gender, race, or ethnicity and, 
accordingly, whether there is actually a need for more effective 
enforcement of the prohibitions on pay discrimination in Title VII, the 
EPA, and E.O. 11246.
    Based on federal data and a robust body of research, the Commission 
concludes that: (1) Persistent pay gaps continue to exist in the U.S. 
workforce correlated with sex, race, and ethnicity; (2) workplace 
discrimination is an important contributing factor to these pay 
disparities; and (3) implementing the proposed EEO-1 pay data 
collection will improve the EEOC's ability to efficiently and 
effectively structure its investigation of pay discrimination charges.
    First, persistent pay gaps exist in the U.S. workforce correlated 
with sex, race, and ethnicity. As of 2014, for women of all races and 
ethnicities, the median annual pay for a woman who held a full-time, 
year-round job was $39,621, while the median annual pay for a man who 
held a full-time, year-round job was $50,383.\16\
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    \16\ Carmen DeNavas-Walt and Bernadette Proctor, U.S. Census 
Bureau, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014, Current 
Population, 6 (2015), Table 1: Income and Earnings Summary Measures 
by Selected Characteristics: 2013 and 2014, https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p60-252.pdf.

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[[Page 45482]]

    African American and Hispanic or Latina women nationwide now 
experience the largest pay disparities. As of 2014, African American 
women were paid almost 40% less than white, non-Hispanic, men and 
approximately 20% less than white, non-Hispanic women.\17\ At a 
national level, African American women were paid 18% less than African 
American men.\18\
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    \17\ Joan Farrelly-Harrigan, U.S. Dep't. of Labor, Women's 
Bureau, Black Women in the Labor Force (Feb. 2016), https://www.dol.gov/wb/media/Black_Women_in_the_Labor_Force.pdf (reporting 
that African American women's median annual earnings in 2014 was 
$33,533, $41,822 for white, non-Hispanic women, and $55,470 for 
white, non-Hispanic men).
    \18\ Id.
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    Similarly, Latina women were paid approximately 44% less than 
white, non-Hispanic men, and 27% less than white, non-Hispanic, women 
in 2014.\19\ The result of the wage gap is that the average Hispanic or 
Latina woman would be paid approximately $1,007,000 less than the 
average white, non-Hispanic, male over a 40-year period.\20\
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    \19\ Michelle Vaca, U.S. Dep't. of Labor Blog, Celebrating 
Hispanic Women in the Labor Force (Oct. 6, 2015), http://blog.dol.gov/2015/10/06/celebrating-hispanic-women-in-the-labor-force/ (reporting that the 2013 median annual earnings for Latinas 
was $30,209).
    \20\ Joint Economic Committee, United States Congress, Gender 
Pay Inequality, 3 (April 2016) http://www.jec.senate.gov/public/
_cache/files/0779dc2f-4a4e-4386-b847-9ae919735acc/gender-pay-
inequality__us-congress-joint-economic-committee.pdf.
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    A similar pattern exists for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander 
women and Native American women who were paid approximately 38% and 41% 
less than white, non-Hispanic men, respectively.\21\ Asian American 
women were paid 10% less than white, non-Hispanic men.\22\
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    \21\ American Association of University Women, The Simple Truth 
About the Gender Pay Gap, 10 (Spring 2016), http://www.aauw.org/files/2016/02/SimpleTruth_Spring2016.pdf (reporting that the median 
annual earnings for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women was 
$32,893 and $31,191 for Native American women).
    \22\ Id. (reporting that Asian American women's median earnings 
in 2014 was $47,776).
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    Wage disparities also exist for men of color. In 2014, African 
American men who worked full time in wage and salary jobs had median 
weekly earnings of $680, which represented approximately 76% of white 
men's median weekly earnings ($897).\23\ Hispanic men earned $616, or 
approximately 69%, of white men's median weekly earnings.\24\
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    \23\ U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Women in 
the labor force; a databook, BLS Reports, 60-61 (Dec. 2015), Table 
16: Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary 
workers, in current dollars, by race, Hispanic, or Latino ethnicity, 
and gender, 1979-2014 annual averages, http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-databook/archive/women-in-the-labor-force-a-databook-2015.pdf.
    \24\ Id.
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    Employment discrimination may play both direct and indirect roles 
in creating these pay disparities. Economists Francine Blau and 
Lawrence Khan found that 64.6% of the wage gap between men and women 
can be explained by three factors: Experience (14.1%), industry 
(17.6%), and occupation (32.9%).\25\ Men are more likely to work in 
blue collar jobs that are higher paying, including construction, 
production, or transportation occupations, whereas women are more 
concentrated in lower paying professions, such as office and 
administrative support positions.\26\ Most of the remaining 35.4% of 
the gender gap cannot be explained by differences in education, 
experience, industry, or occupation.\27\ Blau and Khan argue that 
discrimination--intentional or unintentional, systematic or at the 
individual level--plays a role in explaining the gap.\28\
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    \25\ Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn, The Gender Wage Gap: 
Extent, Trends, and Explanations, Institute for the Study of Labor, 
73 (Jan. 2016), Table 4: Decomposition of Gender Wage Gap, 1980 and 
2010 (PSID), http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf (the authors reported 
that the gender wage gap for purposes of the study was approximately 
79 cents on the dollar in 2010).
    \26\ DeNavas-Walt and Proctor, supra note 16 at 5; see also 
PayScale, Inside the Gender Pay Gap, (2016), http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/gender-pay-gap (reporting that across 
the United States women are more likely to be overrepresented in 
lower paying jobs (jobs that pay less than $60,000 per year) and 
underrepresented in higher paying jobs compared to men. In addition, 
female pay levels off at $49,000 between the ages of 35-40 whereas 
men's pay levels off at $75,000 for the ages of 50-55).
    \27\ Blau & Kahn, supra note 25 at 73, Table 4.
    \28\ Id. A smaller portion of the gap (approximately 5%) can be 
attributed to geographic region (0.3%) and race (4.3%). The authors 
do not provide an explanation about why only 4% of the pay gap is 
attributed to race despite federal data suggesting that the wage gap 
between and within minorities is much larger. However, women's gains 
in education helped to narrow the gender wage gap by almost 6% as 
women now exceed men in educational attainment.
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    Gender bias may become more obvious when occupations have a greater 
proportion of women. One study found that, in an occupation dominated 
by men, pay declines when women enter that occupation in large numbers, 
even after controlling for factors such as education and work 
experience.\29\ The opposite effect occurred when a larger proportion 
of men entered a profession previously dominated by women, i.e., pay 
increased.\30\
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    \29\ Asaf Levanon, Paula England, Paul Allison, Occupational 
Feminization and Pay: Assessing Casual Dynamics Using 1950-2000 U.S. 
Census Data, Social Forces 88(2) (Dec. 2009), http://statisticalhorizons.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/88.2.levanon.pdf.
    \30\ Claire Cain Miller, As Women Take Over a Male Dominated 
Field, the Pay Drops, NY Times (Mar. 18, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/upshot/as-women-take-over-a-male-dominated-field-the-pay-drops.html?_r=0 (reporting that when more 
women became designers, for example, wages fell by 34 percentage 
points. When male computer programmers outnumbered women computer 
programmers, the job began to pay more and earned more prestige).
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    One way that gender discrimination may influence pay is through 
implicit or unconscious bias during hiring, promotion decisions, or job 
assignments.\31\ A study by McKinsey & Company found that women are 
almost three times more likely than men to have missed out on an 
assignment, promotion, or increase in wages because of their 
gender.\32\ Another study shows that women who engage in pay 
negotiations are more likely than men to face backlash due to gender 
stereotypes.\33\
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    \31\ Nancy Lockwood, The Glass Ceiling: Domestic and 
International Perspectives, 3 Society for Human Resource Management 
Quarterly 2004, https://www.shrm.org/Research/Articles/Articles/Documents/040329Quaterly.pdf (reporting that signs of the glass 
ceiling in the workplace can be based on gender-based barriers that 
may be invisible, covert, and overt).
    \32\ Lean In & McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2015, 
13 (2015), http://womenintheworkplace.com/ui/pdfs/Women_in_the_Workplace_2015.pdf?v=5.
    \33\ Hannah Riley Bowles & Linda Babcock, How Can Women Escape 
the Compensation Negotiation Dilemma? Relational Accounts Are One 
Answer, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37.1, 81 (2013), http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/37/1/80.full.pdf+html (finding that 
``[n]egotiating for higher compensation is socially costly for women 
because it violates prescriptive gender stereotypes derived from the 
gendered division of labor . . ., and its resulting social hierarchy 
of men in charge and women in caregiving and support roles'').
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    Similar to gender discrimination, racial discrimination may 
influence pay through implicit or unconscious bias. A series of studies 
by MIT Sloan found racial bias in salary negotiations even after 
controlling for the applicants' objective qualifications.\34\ Research 
by

[[Page 45483]]

Roland Fryer, Devah Pager, and J[ouml]rg L. Spenkuch found that 
discrimination accounts for at least one-third of the black-white wage 
gap.\35\ The authors concluded that, compared to whites with comparable 
resumes, black job seekers were offered lower compensation by potential 
new employees and were more likely to accept the lower compensation. 
The researchers found that, although the wage gaps narrow over time as 
black workers stay at the same job, an unexplained gap nonetheless 
persists.\36\
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    \34\ Moreal Hernandez and Derek R. Avery, Getting the Short End 
of the Stick: Racial Bias in Salary Negotiations, MIT Sloan 
Management Review (June 15, 2016), http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/getting-the-short-end-of-the-stick-racial-bias-in-salary-negotiations/ (MIT conducted three studies focused on racial bias in 
salary negotiations. In the first study, evaluators reviewed resumes 
from white and black job applicants. The evaluators were asked to 
evaluate each job applicant and rate the likelihood that the job 
applicant would negotiate their salary if offered the job. After 
controlling for each job applicant's objective qualifications, the 
evaluators identified the black job applicants as less likely to 
negotiate compared to the white job applicants. The second study 
tested whether the evaluators had a racially-biased mindset, which 
was defined as a person who believes one or a few races were 
superior to others. The study found that the evaluators had 
different role expectations of the black applicants compared to the 
white applicants and they also identified the black job applicants 
as less likely to negotiate. For the third study, the evaluators and 
job applicants were required to simulate a job negotiation. Although 
the black job applicants reported that they negotiated comparably 
(in terms of the number of offers and counteroffers made) to their 
white counterparts, their evaluators reported that the black job 
applicants had negotiated more than the white job applicants. The 
MIT professors concluded that because the evaluators expected the 
black job applicants to negotiate less, they had an exaggerated view 
of their behavior during the job negotiation. In addition, the 
professors found that the black job applicants received lower 
starting salaries based on the evaluators perception that the black 
job applicants were more aggressive).
    \35\ Roland Fryer, Devah Pager, and J[ouml]rg L. Spenkuch, 
Racial Disparities in Job Findings and Offered Wages, Journal of Law 
and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(3), 22-23, 
(Sept. 2011), http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryer/files/racial_disparities_in_job_finding_and_offered_wages.pdf.
    \36\ Id.
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    Voluntary compliance is an important part of the effort to prevent 
discrimination and improve pay equity, and many employers are taking 
steps to ensure equal pay for equal work. For example, more than 25 
companies have signed a White House Equal Pay Pledge to take action to 
reduce wage disparities in the workplace.\37\ These employers committed 
to conducting an annual company-wide gender pay analysis across 
occupations, reviewing hiring and promotion processes and procedures to 
reduce unconscious bias and structural barriers, and embedding equal 
pay efforts into broader enterprise-wide equity initiatives.\38\
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    \37\ The White House, White House Equal Pay Pledge, https://www.whitehouse.gov/webform/white-house-equal-pay-pledge. See also, 
Natalia Merluzzi, These Businesses are Taking the Equal Pay Pledge, 
White House Blog (June 14, 2016), https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/06/14/businesses-taking-equal-pay-pledge.
    \38\ Id.
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    There is also evidence that pay equity is good for business. For 
example, a McKinsey & Company study found that gender parity in the 
United States could lead to $4.3 trillion of additional GDP by 2025, 
which is 19% higher than if current trends in pay inequity 
continue.\39\ Another recent study found that, on average, companies 
with greater gender diversity outperformed their peers with less 
diversity over the previous five years, and had a higher return on 
equity.\40\ The study measured gender diversity according to the 
following factors: (1) Equality in pay; (2) empowerment (defined as 
number of women at the highest levels of the corporation and on key 
committees); (3) representation of women at different levels (including 
as members of the board of directors, senior executives, and regular 
employees); (4) work life balance programs; and (5) diversity policies. 
Pay parity and empowerment were weighted more than the other 
factors.\41\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \39\ McKinsey & Company, The Power of Parity: Advancing Women's 
Equality in the United States, (April 2016) http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/employment-and-growth/the-power-of-parity-advancing-womens-equality-in-the-united-states.
    \40\ Morgan Stanley, Gender Diversity is a Competitive Advantage 
(May 12, 2016), http://www.morganstanley.com/blog/women/gender-diversity-work; See also Morgan Stanley, Why it Pays to Invest in 
Gender Diversity (May 11, 2016), http://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/gender-diversity-investment-framework.html.
    \41\ Id.
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    Despite voluntary compliance and the strong business case for fair 
pay, pay discrimination persists as a serious problem that EEOC and 
OFCCP are statutorily required to address. The EEOC's mission is to 
stop and remedy unlawful employment discrimination. The OFCCP's purpose 
is to enforce, for the benefit of job seekers and wage earners, the 
contractual promise of affirmative action and equal employment 
opportunity required of those who do business with the federal 
government. To fulfill these goals, the EEOC and OFCCP need to be as 
effective and efficient as possible in their investigations of alleged 
discrimination. They now lack the employer- and establishment-specific 
pay data that, prior to issuing a detailed request for information or a 
subpoena, would be extremely useful in helping enforcement staff to 
investigate potential pay discrimination. Balancing utility and burden, 
the EEOC has concluded that the proposed EEO-1 pay data collection 
would be an effective and appropriate tool for this purpose, for all of 
the reasons explained below.\42\
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    \42\ States also are addressing gender pay inequities, including 
proposing to establish pay transparency, prohibit retaliation 
against workers who discuss their wages, and request state agencies 
to examine their pay practices and develop best practices. For a 
summary of state equal pay laws, see National Conference of State 
Legislatures, State Equal Pay Laws--July 2015, http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/equal-pay-laws.aspx. For a summary of 
state equal pay legislation, see Kate Nielsen, American Association 
of University Women, 2015 State Equal Pay Legislation by the Numbers 
(August 20, 2015), http://www.aauw.org/2015/08/20/equal-pay-by-state/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IV. Who Will Report Pay Data on the Revised EEO-1

A. Employers That Currently File the EEO-1

    All private employers that are covered by Title VII and have 100 or 
more employees now file an EEO-1 report about the sex, race, and 
ethnicity of their employees, which is designated here as Component 1 
(demographic data).\43\ Federal contractors with 50 or more employees 
also file the EEO-1 if they are not exempt as provided for by 41 CFR 
60-1.5. Single establishment employers file one EEO-1, and multi-
establishment employers file EEO-1 reports or data for each 
establishment.\44\ Federal contractors with 1 to 49 employees and other 
private employers with 1 to 99 employees do not file EEO-1 reports.
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    \43\ Private employers also must file the EEO-1 if they have 
fewer than 100 employees but are owned or affiliated with another 
company or have centralized ownership, control or management so that 
the group legally constitutes a single enterprise and the entire 
enterprise employs a total of 100 or more employees. EEOC, EEO-1: 
Who Must File, https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/whomustfile.cfm.
    \44\ Employers and contractors file different types of EEO-1 
reports depending on whether they are single-establishment or multi-
establishment filers. Single-establishment filers only file one 
report, the Type 1 report. Multi-establishment filers submit several 
reports. These are: The Type 2--Consolidated Report, which must 
include data on all employees of the company; the Type 3--
Headquarters Report, which must include the employees working at the 
main office site of the company and those who work from home and 
report to the corporate office; the Type 4--Establishment Report, 
for each physical location with 50 or more employees, which provides 
full employment data categorized by race, gender and job category. 
For sites with fewer than 50 employees, filers submit either: Type 
6--Establishment List, which provides only the establishment name, 
complete address and total number of employees; or Type 8--
Establishment Report, which is a full report for each establishment 
employing fewer than 50 employees.
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B. 60-Day Notice: Which Employers Would File Pay Data

    In the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC proposed that EEO-1 private 
employers and federal contractors with 100 or more employees would 
submit the EEO-1 with pay and hours-worked data (Component 2) in 
addition to Component 1 data. The 60-Day Notice also stated that 
federal contractors with between 50 and 99 employees would continue to 
submit Component 1 data but would not submit Component 2 data.

C. Public Comments

    The EEOC received comments urging it to remove employers with fewer 
than

[[Page 45484]]

200, or fewer than 500, employees from the requirement to report pay 
and hours-worked data on the EEO-1 (Component 2), in order to avoid 
imposing a burden on them. Some comments also encouraged the EEOC to 
eliminate the requirement to provide establishment-level pay data for 
establishments with fewer than 50 or 100 employees. These comments also 
expressed concern that reporting pay data for small employers, or small 
employer establishments, could reveal employee-level pay information. 
Conversely, other comments urged the EEOC to collect data from smaller 
employers by lowering the reporting threshold for pay data to 50 or 
more employees for federal contractors.

D. 30-Day Notice: Employers With 100 or More Employees Will File 
Components 1 and 2

    The Commission has considered the arguments for increasing the size 
of those employers subject to Components 1 and 2 and has decided to 
retain the same employee thresholds as in the 60-Day Notice. Exempting 
employers with fewer than 500 employees, or even fewer than 250, from 
Component 2 would result in losing data for a large number of employers 
who employ millions of workers, and thus would significantly reduce the 
utility of the pay data collection. In addition, the EEOC and OFCCP 
have decided not to exempt federal contractors with 50-99 employees 
from filing Component 1 of the EEO-1. The Commission's proposal reduces 
employer burden by changing other aspects of the EEO-1, such as the 
reporting deadline. See section V.
    In sum, all employers with 100 or more employees will be subject to 
Components 1 and 2 of the EEO-1 starting with reporting year 2017. 
Federal contractors with 50-99 employees will not experience a change 
in their EEO-1 reporting requirements as a result of this proposal; 
they will not file Component 2 and will continue to file only Component 
1. Consistent with current practice, federal contractors with 1 to 49 
employees and other private employers with 1 to 99 employees will be 
exempt from filing the EEO-1; they will file neither Component 1 nor 
Component 2.

V. When To File: Filing Deadline and Workforce Snapshot Period

    This 30-Day Notice proposes to change the EEO-1 filing deadline to 
March 31st\,\ of the year that follows the reporting year. This Notice 
also proposes to change the ``workforce snapshot'' to a pay period 
between October 1st and December 31st of the reporting year, starting 
with the EEO-1 report for 2017.
    Note that the reporting schedule for 2016 data remains unchanged; 
EEO-1 respondents must comply with the September 30, 2016, filing 
requirement for the currently-approved EEO-1, and must continue to use 
the July 1st through September 30th workforce snapshot period for that 
report. Under the proposed changes to the reporting schedule, EEO-1 
reports for 2017 data would be due on March 31, 2018.

A. 60-Day Notice

    In the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC proposed to retain the current 
September 30th EEO-1 filing deadline. The EEOC explained that, starting 
in 2017, employers with 100 or more employees would document their 
employees' W-2 earnings for a 12-month period starting October 1st and 
ending the next September 30th. The 60-Day Notice reasoned that W-2 
earnings are generally recorded in 3-month periods (calendar year 
quarters) and that, because the third quarter ends on September 30th, 
employers could calculate the 12-month W-2 wages without significant 
difficulty.\45\ The 60-Day Notice also retained the current ``workforce 
snapshot'' approach of allowing each employer to choose a pay period 
between July 1st and September 30th during which it would count its 
employees to be reported on the EEO-1.\46\ The employees counted during 
this pay period would be the ones reported on the EEO-1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \45\ 81 FR 5113 (Feb. 1, 2016).
    \46\ EEOC, EEO-1: When to File, https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/whentofile.cfm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Public Comments

    Employers and other groups objected vigorously to the burden of 
reporting non-calendar year W-2 data (i.e., October 1st to September 
30th). These parties argued that the EEOC, by choosing to impose this 
unique 12-month reporting period, would significantly increase their 
costs by compelling them to recalculate W-2 earnings for the sole 
purpose of completing the EEO-1.
    On a related point, employers reliant on human resource information 
systems (HRIS) \47\ and payroll software said that they would have 
insufficient time to budget, develop, and implement new reporting 
systems if the 2017 EEO-1 report were to be due on September 30, 2017. 
Employers lacking HRIS and payroll software said they would have a 
variety of implementation challenges, depending on how they organized 
their records.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \47\ These systems are also sometimes called ``human resource 
management systems'' or HRMS.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Many commenters suggested changing the 12-month EEO-1 reporting 
period to be the same as the W-2 reporting period (a calendar year) and 
moving the EEO-1 filing deadline into the subsequent year, preferably 
after W-2s are due. A few stakeholders suggested that the EEOC conduct 
the pay data collection every two years.

C. 30-Day Notice

1. Deadline for Filing the EEO-1
    For the upcoming 2016 EEO-1 report, the filing deadline will remain 
September 30, 2016. However, beginning with the 2017 report, the 
reporting deadline for all EEO-1 filers will be March 31st of the year 
following the EEO-1 report year. Thus, the 2017 EEO-1 report will be 
due on March 31, 2018. Changing the filing deadline will give employers 
subject to Component 2 six more months to prepare their recordkeeping 
systems for the 2017 report, and it will give them 1.5 years without 
filing an EEO-1 report (September 30, 2016 to March 31, 2018). At the 
same time, this change will align the EEO-1 with federal obligations to 
calculate and report W-2 earnings as of December 31st; the EEOC will 
not require a special W-2 calculation for the EEO-1.\48\ These changes 
will reduce the burden on employers of gathering Component 2 data.
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    \48\ Employers must send the W-2 to the Social Security 
Administration by the last day of February, although special due 
dates apply if the employer terminated its business or is filing 
electronically. Employers must furnish the W-2 to employees by 
February 1. IRS, Topic 752--Filing Forms W-2 and W-3 (Dec. 30, 
2015), https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc752.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Commission declines to adopt an alternate-year schedule for 
filing the EEO-1 report. If collected only in alternate years, the 
utility of EEO-1 data would be diminished because it would become stale 
before the new data became available.
2. ``Workforce Snapshot'' Period
    The ``workforce snapshot'' period refers to the pay period when 
employers count the total number of employees for that year's EEO-1 
report. The EEO-1 has always used this ``workforce snapshot'' approach, 
which gives employers a choice but freezes EEO-1 employment numbers as 
of the chosen pay period. Some employers criticized the ``workforce 
snapshot'' approach because it would not reflect same-year promotions 
that have the effect of moving the employee into a different EEO-1 job 
category or pay band after the ``snapshot'' was taken. The Commission

[[Page 45485]]

addresses this concern in part by moving the ``workforce snapshot'' 
period to the fourth quarter, October 1st to December 31st, so that 
there are fewer opportunities for unreported changes after the 
``snapshot.'' This will preserve employer choice as to the ``workforce 
snapshot,'' while at the same time accommodating the established 
federal schedule for preparing W-2's. In sum, while employers will 
count their employees during a pay period between October 1st and 
December 31st, they will report W-2 income and hours-worked data for 
these employees for the entire year ending December 31st.\49\
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    \49\ By changing the EEO-1 ``workforce snapshot'' to the last 
quarter of each calendar year, EEO-1 contractor filers that also 
file annual employee reports under the Vietnam Era Veterans' 
Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended (VEVRAA), 38 U.S.C. 
4212(d), will be in a position to align their VEVRAA data 
collections with the new EEO-1. Under regulations implementing 
VEVRAA, certain federal contractors must report annually on form 
VETS-4212 the number of employees and new hires protected under 
VEVRAA. 41 CFR 61-300.10(d)(1). Form VETS-4212 collects information 
for veterans protected by VEVRAA using the EEO-1's 10 job 
categories. For each reporting year, the federal contractor must 
report covered employees for the 12-month period preceding a date it 
selects between July 1st and August 31st that falls at the end of a 
payroll period. Significantly, the regulations allow contractors to 
select December 31st as the basis for reporting the number of 
employees and as the ending date of the twelve-month covered period, 
if the federal contractor has ``previous written approval from the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to do so for purposes of 
submitting the Employer Information Report EEO-1, Standard Form 100 
(EEO-1 Report).'' 41 CFR 61-300.10(d)(2). The implementation notice 
for the revised EEO-1 will serve as ``previous written approval'' 
from the EEOC pursuant to this Department of Labor VEVRAA rule.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    This change will not affect the 2016 EEO-1, for which the July 1st 
to September 30th ``workforce snapshot'' period remains effective.

VI. What Pay Data To Report: Measure of Pay for the EEO-1

    This 30-Day Notice proposes that employers use Box 1 of Form W-2 
(hereafter ``W-2 income'') as the measure of pay for Component 2 of the 
EEO-1.\50\ By definition, W-2, Box 1 includes income that is received 
between January 1st and December 31st of the relevant calendar year. In 
reaching this decision, the Commission considered government studies 
that analyze compensation in U.S. workplaces, relevant academic 
literature on compensation practices, the public comments and public 
testimony, and the analyses reflected in the EEOC's NAS study \51\ and 
its own Pilot Study.\52\
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    \50\ The IRS instructions for Form W-2 list the following 
categories of Box 1 taxable income: ``(1) Total wages, bonuses 
(including signing bonuses), prizes, and awards paid to employees 
during the year; (2) Total noncash payments, including certain 
fringe benefits; (3) Total tips reported by the employee to the 
employer; (4) Certain employee business expense reimbursements; (5) 
The cost of accident and health insurance premiums for 2%-or-more 
shareholder-employees paid by an S corporation: (6) Taxable benefits 
from a section 125 (cafeteria) plan if the employee chooses cash; 
(7) Employee contributions to an Archer MSA (medical savings 
account); (8) Employer contributions to an Archer MSA if includible 
in the income of the employee; (9) Employer contributions for 
qualified long-term care services to the extent that such coverage 
is provided through a flexible spending or similar arrangement; (10) 
Taxable cost of group-term life insurance in excess of $50,000; (11) 
Unless excludable under Educational assistance programs, payments 
for non-job-related education expenses or for payments under a 
nonaccountable plan; (12) The amount includible as wages because you 
paid your employee's share of social security and Medicare taxes (or 
railroad retirement taxes, if applicable). If employer also paid the 
employee's income tax withholding, the employer treats the grossed-
up amount of that withholding as supplemental wages and reports 
those wages in boxes 1, 3, 5, and 7. (Employer uses box 14 if 
railroad retirement taxes apply.) No exceptions to this treatment 
apply to household or agricultural wages; (13) Designated Roth 
contributions made under a section 401(k) plan, a section 403(b) 
salary reduction agreement, or a governmental section 457(b) plan; 
(14) Distributions to an employee or former employee from an NQDC 
plan (including a rabbi trust) or a nongovernmental section 457(b) 
plan; (15) Amounts includible in income under section 457(f) because 
the amounts are no longer subject to a substantial risk of 
forfeiture; (16) Payments to statutory employees who are subject to 
social security and Medicare taxes but not subject to federal income 
tax withholding must be shown in box 1 as other compensation; (17) 
Cost of current insurance protection under a compensatory split-
dollar life insurance arrangement; (18) Employee contributions to a 
health savings account (HSA); (19) Employer contributions to an HSA 
if includible in the income of the employee; (20) Amounts includible 
in income under an NQDC plan because of section 409A; (21) Payments 
made to former employees while they are on active duty in the Armed 
Forces or other uniformed services; and (22) All other compensation, 
including certain scholarship and fellowship grants.'' IRS, 2016 
General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3, (Jan. 5, 2016), https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw2w3.pdf.
    \51\ NAS Report, supra note 3.
    \52\ Sage Computing, supra note 3. This EEOC Pilot Study 
compared the OES definition of compensation to the W-2 and concluded 
that ``[t]he W-2 definition of income . . . offers a more 
comprehensive picture of earnings data and therefore is more 
appropriate for identifying discriminatory practices.'' In contrast 
to the OES definition of pay, the W-2 definition includes all the 
elements of compensation that are captured by the OES definition, 
but also includes forms of compensation such as overtime wages, 
shift differentials, fees, commissions, fringe benefits, and 
bonuses. Box 1 on the W-2 excludes certain elective deferrals or 
pre-tax deductions such as employer-sponsored retirement plan 
(401(k) or 403(b)) contributions, flexible spending account 
contributions for health and dependent care, and medical 
contributions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A. 60-Day Notice: Options for Measuring Pay

    The EEOC's 60-Day Notice described five different measures of 
individual compensation that are used by the federal government.\53\ 
After narrowing its consideration to two of these--the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) measure of pay 
\54\ and the Internal Revenue Service's W-2 definition \55\ --the EEOC 
proposed to use W-2 income because it is already calculated by 
employers, therefore limiting burden, and because it is a comprehensive 
measure of pay that would be more likely to capture the effect of 
employment discrimination on different kinds of compensation.\56\ In 
the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC did not specify which box on the W-2 it 
would use, but the Commission now specifies that employers will report 
on income provided in Box 1 of the W-2 form.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \53\ NAS Report, supra notes 3 and 51 at 32-34, 41-45, http://www.nap.edu/read/13496/chapter/4#32.
    \54\ The Occupation Employment Statistics (OES) survey defines 
earnings to include base rate pay, cost-of-living allowances, 
guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay such as 
commissions and production bonuses, tips, and on-call pay. The OES 
measure excludes back pay, jury duty pay, overtime pay, severance 
pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, employer costs for 
supplementary benefits, and tuition reimbursements. U.S. Dept. of 
Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupation Employment Statistics, 
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_tec.htm. OES survey uses twelve 
wage intervals. U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
Survey Methods and Reliability Statement for the 2015 Occupational 
Employment Statistics Survey, 4, http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf,
    \55\ 81 FR 5113, 5116 (Feb. 1, 2016). The EEOC initially 
considered five measures of pay. Three of those measures are used by 
the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) when it reports 
national employment data: the Occupation Employment Statistics 
(OES); the National Compensation Survey (NCS); and the Current 
Employment Statistics (CES) survey programs. One measure was from 
the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the final measure was 
from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (W-2).
    \56\ Sage Computing, supra notes 3 and 52.
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B. Public Comments

1. Supporting the Use of W-2 Income
    Comments in support of using W-2 income emphasized that it is a 
comprehensive measure of pay that encompasses overtime, shift 
differentials, and production and non-production bonuses, which are 
increasingly important elements of pay. These parties stated that 
employment discrimination can be manifested when employers decide which 
employees get opportunities to earn shift differentials or overtime 
pay, or get large bonuses or awards. Using a measure of pay that 
excludes so much pay that could be influenced by discrimination would 
radically reduce the utility of this data collection for the EEOC and 
OFCCP.
2. Opposing the Use of W-2 Income
    Comments in opposition to using W-2 income fell into three 
categories.

[[Page 45486]]

Objection 1: W-2 Income Reflects Employee Choice and Is Not a Reliable 
Measure of Employer Discrimination
    The most widely articulated objection to using W-2 income was that 
it was not indicative of discrimination because it may reflect employee 
choice more than employer discretion and that the EEOC cannot 
differentiate the two in an aggregate pay data collection. Commenters 
making this argument identified elective participation in overtime, 
working shifts that provide pay differentials, and working faster or 
better than another employee (e.g., payments for piecework, 
commissions, or production), as governed by employee choice. Some of 
these comments argued that using W-2 income will in fact cause the EEOC 
to find ``false-positives'' indicating discrimination because the 
agency will assume that pay disparities are caused by discrimination 
rather than employee choice.
    Some of these parties urged the EEOC to use ``base pay'' rather 
than W-2 income because ``base pay'' is controlled entirely by 
employers and therefore is better suited to documenting potential 
discrimination. Another advantage to using ``base pay,'' they 
maintained, is that it would be significantly less expensive and easier 
for them to report on the EEO-1 because their HRIS now include records 
of base pay but not W-2 income. These stakeholders did not define 
``base pay,'' apart from noting that it does not include supplemental 
pay such as overtime, shift differentials, and bonuses, and that it can 
be stated as an hourly rate or as an annual salary.
Objection 2: Collection of W-2 Data Burdens Employers by Requiring the 
Integration of HRIS and Payroll Systems
    Employers argued that reporting W-2 income would impose an 
inordinate burden and expense because they store W-2 income data in 
computerized payroll systems that are entirely separate from the HRIS 
where they maintain EEO-1 demographic data. They asserted that 
procuring or developing new software to bridge these two systems would 
be time-consuming and extremely costly.
Objection 3: Collection of W-2 Income Data for October 1st to September 
30th Is Burdensome
    Finally, employers argued that reporting W-2 income for October 1st 
to September 30th of every year would be burdensome because employers' 
payroll systems collect and report W-2 income on a calendar-year basis 
for tax purposes. By proposing to change the filing date for the 
revised EEO-1 from September 30th to March 31st, the EEOC has addressed 
this objection.

C. 30-Day Notice: W-2 (Box 1) Income Is the Measure of Pay

1. W-2 Income and Employee Choice
    The Commission is not persuaded by the argument that W-2 income is 
an unsuitable measure for a pay data collection by an agency that 
enforces anti-discrimination laws because it may reflect employee 
choice as well as employer policy or decisions. As the White House 
Council of Economic Advisers notes, ``In many situations, the 
delineations between discrimination and preferences are ambiguous.'' 
\57\ For example, higher commission income may, as some public comments 
noted, reflect an employee's higher performance, but it may also 
reflect an employer's discriminatory assignment of more lucrative sales 
opportunities to employees based on race, ethnicity, and/or sex. As 
another example, a statistically significant difference in overtime pay 
between men and women in the same job may result from an employer's 
gender-biased assumptions that lead to more overtime opportunities 
being offered to men than to women, whom they may assume have competing 
family responsibilities. Pay discrimination is complex, and it would be 
an oversimplification to conclude that only those measures of pay that 
are shown to be exclusively dependent on an employer's decision or 
policy can be relevant to assessing allegations of pay discrimination.
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    \57\ Council of Economic Advisers Issue Brief, The Gender Pay 
Gap on the Anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (Jan. 
2016), https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/page/files/20160128_cea_gender_pay_gap_issue_brief.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Supplemental Income Is Important and May Be Linked to Discrimination
    Based on its consideration of public comments and government and 
private sector research, the Commission concludes that supplemental pay 
is a critical component of compensation and it can be influenced by 
discrimination, so any measure of income for purposes of enforcing the 
pay discrimination laws should include supplemental pay. W-2 income 
incorporates different kinds of supplemental pay that would not be 
available for analysis if the EEOC were to collect only ``base pay'' or 
another basic measure of pay that ignored major sources of 
compensation.\58\ For employers, W-2 income is a well-defined, 
familiar, and universally-available measure of pay; for the EEOC and 
OFCCP, it is useful data for exploring potential pay discrimination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \58\ For example, although the FLSA requires employers to 
maintain pay rates, those pay rates do not include important sources 
of supplemental income that the EEOC has determined is important to 
collect in order to identify potential sources of pay 
discrimination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Supplemental pay is becoming more and more prevalent in the United 
States. As noted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor 
(BLS), ``For many occupations in the U.S. labor market supplemental 
pay--including overtime, bonuses, and shift differentials--is an 
important component of overall cash compensation. Overtime pay is 
especially important in production occupations and other blue-collar 
jobs; bonus pay is mostly a feature of high-wage managerial and sales 
occupations; and shift differentials play a prominent role in . . . 
healthcare [] and technical occupations.'' \59\ This pattern also is 
apparent in some of America's highest paying professions. In the legal 
profession, for example, bonuses at law firms can account for a 
significant portion of an associate's total compensation, beyond base 
salary.\60\
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    \59\ John L. Bishow, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, A Look at Supplemental Pay: Overtime Pay, Bonuses, and 
Shift Differentials (March 25, 2009), http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/cwc/a-look-at-supplemental-pay-overtime-pay-bonuses-and-shift-differentials.pdf.
    \60\ National Association of Law Placement (NALP), 2014 
Associate Salary Survey, NALP, 67-77 (September, 2014), Associate 
Bonuses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The human resources consulting firm Aon Hewitt's 2014 U.S. Salary 
Increase Survey of 1,064 organizations found that variable pay (such as 
performance-based bonuses) for exempt employees comprised 12.7% of 
payroll that year.\61\ This represented the highest ratio companies 
have paid out of their budgets toward bonuses since the consulting firm 
started keeping records 35 years ago and is an increase from 2008 when 
10.8% of their total compensation budgets were devoted to variable pay 
for exempt employees.\62\ Ken Abosch, leader of Aon Hewitt's 
compensation practice, stated that companies prefer to give 
performance-based pay because this practice ``keeps employees focused 
on good performance rather than just showing up, and it allows 
companies to reward and retain their really valuable employees.'' \63\ 
In addition, Abosch

[[Page 45487]]

noted that performance-based pay allows companies to keep their base 
salaries lower and that companies will only allocate bonuses ``if [the 
company] has good or great results.'' \64\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \61\ Aon Hewitt, New Aon Hewitt Survey Shows 2014 Variable Pay 
Spending Spikes to Record-High Level (Aug. 27, 2014), http://aon.mediaroom.com/New-Aon-Hewitt-Survey-Shows-2014-Variable-Pay-Spending-Spikes-to-Record-High-Level.
    \62\ Id.
    \63\ Jenna McGregor, Bonuses are making up a bigger and bigger 
percentage of companies' payrolls, Washington Post, (Aug. 27, 2014), 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2014/08/27/bonuses-are-making-up-a-bigger-and-bigger-percentage-of-companies-payrolls/.
    \64\ Id.
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    In some industries, shift differentials \65\ and overtime pay \66\ 
are important aspects of income. Eighty-three percent of manufacturing 
and production companies, 59% of customer service and support entities, 
and 51% of transportation and distribution companies surveyed in 2010 
offered shift differentials.\67\ Hospitals and health care service 
organizations also pay shift differentials for holiday and weekend 
shifts more than other industries.\68\ Overtime is particularly 
important in production, transportation, and material moving 
industries, with workers earning 2% of their income in overtime pay in 
December 2015.\69\ Employers can control who gets the opportunity for 
assignments to lucrative shifts that pay premium wages or overtime pay, 
and withholding such assignments because of a protected basis such as 
race, ethnicity, or sex would violate Title VII.
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    \65\ Shift differentials are paid to compensate employees for 
working shifts other than regular weekday hours.
    \66\ Employees who are nonexempt under the Fair Labor Standards 
Act are entitled to receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in 
a workweek. 29 CFR 778.10. The overtime rate is not less than time 
and one-half their regular pay rate. U.S. Dept. of Labor, Wage and 
Hour Division, Overtime Pay, https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime_pay.htm. See also U.S. Dept. of Labor, Wage and Hour 
Division, Final Rule: Overtime, https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/, and, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact 
Sheet: Final Rule to Update the Regulations Defining and Delimiting 
the Exemption for Executive, Administrative, and Professional 
Employees (May 2016), https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/overtime-factsheet.htm.
    \67\ SHRM, Shift Differentials: Compensation for Working 
Undesirable Hours (Dec. 3, 2010), https://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/compensation/articles/pages/shiftdifferentials.aspx.
    \68\ Id.
    \69\ U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, News 
Release-Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (June 9, 2016), 
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf.
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    Incentive pay for top executives also may be subject to 
discrimination. For example, at the five highest executive level 
positions (chief executive officer, vice chair, president, chief 
financial officer, and chief operating officer), research based on data 
from 1992-2005 shows that women received a lower share of incentive pay 
(including bonuses and stock option grants) than their male 
counterparts, accounting for 93% of the gender pay gap at that 
level.\70\ This difference remained even after taking into account 
differences of age, tenure, and titles.\71\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \70\ Stefania Albanesi, Claudia Olivetti, Maria Jos[eacute] 
Prados, Liberty Street Economics: Incentive Pay and Gender 
Compensation Gaps for Top Executives, Federal Reserve Bank of New 
York, (Aug. 25, 2015), http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2015/08/incentive-pay-and-gender-compensation-gaps-for-top-executives.html#.VzovwP5JlR0.
    \71\ Stefania Albanesi, How performance pay schemes make the 
gender gap worse, World Economic Forum, (Dec.23, 2015), https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/how-performance-pay-schemes-make-the-gender-gap-worse/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Bridging HRIS and Payroll
    In light of employers' argument that bridging employers' HRIS and 
payroll software for the new EEO-1 will be so burdensome that it 
outweighs the utility of W-2 income, the EEOC examined three of the 
HRIS tools that it sees most often in systemic investigations: ADP 
Enterprise, PeopleSoft, and UltiPro. All three HRIS allow for the 
collection of EEO-1 demographic data, and all three offer the capacity 
to record year-to-date gross and paid earnings.\72\ The EEOC recognizes 
that many employers may not choose to use this capacity, but its 
existence suggests that creating software solutions for the EEO-1, 
Components 1 and 2, may not be as complex or novel as some comments 
suggested.
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    \72\ The ADP HRIS software allows for the collection of year-to-
date gross pay and pay earnings. It includes paycheck year-to-date 
totals and provides fields for year-to-date tax amount, overtime 
hourly earnings, overtime hours, total overtime earnings, and total 
overtime hours. Further, it appears to provide fields for year-to-
date taxable income, taxable gross income year-to-date, and year-to-
date taxable amounts. Ultipro allows collection of weekly pay rate, 
hourly pay rate, and year-to-date taxable gross income, in addition 
to other measure of pay, hours, and bonus. Finally, PeopleSoft 
allows collection of hourly rate, minimum hourly rate, maximum 
hourly rate, and Last 26 Pay Period gross income.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The EEOC intends to support employers and HRIS vendors as 
appropriate to accommodate Component 2 of the proposed EEO-1. For 
example, the EEO-1 Joint Reporting Committee plans to post online its 
new Data File Specifications for Components 1 and 2 of the modified 
EEO-1 as soon as OMB approves the information collection. The EEO-1 
data file specifications will be for data uploads (submitting EEO-1 
data in one digital file), but they also will describe the formatting 
of data for direct data entry onto the firm's secure EEO-1 account with 
the Joint Reporting Committee. For reference, the current EEO-1 data 
file specifications can be found at https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/ee1_datafile_2013.cfm.

VII. What Data To Report: Hours Worked

A. 60-Day Notice

    The Commission proposed collecting the number of ``hours worked'' 
for non-exempt employees by job category, subdivided into pay band 
cells, to account for periods when employees were not employed or were 
engaged in part-time work. With regard to exempt employees, the EEOC 
suggested that ``[o]ne approach would be for employers to use an 
estimate of 40 hours per week for full-time salaried workers. The EEOC 
[was] not proposing to require an employer to begin collecting 
additional data on actual hours worked for salaried workers, to the 
extent that the employer does not currently maintain such 
information.'' \73\
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    \73\ 81 FR 5113, 5117 (Feb. 1, 2016).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Public Comments

    Public comments from many employers objected to collecting hours 
worked data due to the cost of creating new systems to collate and 
report data about hours worked with W-2 income, and EEO-1 Component 1 
data. Some employers inquired how the EEOC would define ``hours 
worked,'' so they would know what to report. These employers focused on 
two alternatives: (1) The FLSA definition of hours worked; and (2) the 
Affordable Care Act (ACA) approach.
    The question of how to count hours worked for employees exempt from 
overtime received a lot of attention, especially the EEOC's proposal to 
count 40 hours per week for full time, exempt workers. Supporters of 
the revised EEO-1 said it was reasonable to use a proxy of 40 hours per 
week for full-time exempt employees. Those who objected to using the 
40-hours per week proxy observed that it simply would not reflect the 
reality of the hours worked by many full-time exempt employees, who may 
work substantially more than 40 hours in any given week and may work 
less than 40 hours in another week. Some comments argued that, since 
the 40-hour estimate would be incorrect in many instances, reporting 40 
hours per week would require them to submit and certify inaccurate 
information to the federal government.

C. 30-Day Notice

1. The Importance of Collecting Hours Worked
    Collecting hours worked is of central importance because this data 
will enable the EEOC and OFCCP to account for part-time and partial-
year work and to assess potential pay disparities in the

[[Page 45488]]

context of this information. The importance of ``hours worked'' data 
can be illustrated by example. If two men and two women in the same job 
category are paid comparable wage rates, but the men are employed full-
time and the women are employed part-time, it would initially appear on 
Component 2 of the EEO-1--without any data on their hours worked--that 
the employer was paying the women significantly less than the men (the 
women would be counted in a lower pay band). On the other hand, if it 
was known that the men worked 40 hours per week and the women worked 20 
hours per week, then their different hours would provide a potential 
explanation of what initially appears to be a gender-based pay 
disparity. Of course, explaining a pay disparity in this way would not 
rule out the possibility that it was also caused by a discriminatory 
practice or policy that may be identified through further 
investigation.
    In addition to helping to assess pay disparities, hours-worked data 
may be useful in its own right. The EEOC receives charges of 
discrimination alleging that an employer gave the charging party fewer 
hours than other employees, or denied overtime or premium pay hours 
based on race, ethnicity, sex, or another statutorily-protected basis. 
Collecting ``hours worked'' data on the EEO-1 would be useful in the 
initial stages of such an investigation, as the EEOC seeks to assess 
how the employer assigns work hours.
2. Defining ``Hours Worked''
    The Commission adopts the FLSA definition for ``hours worked'' 
because it is familiar to employers, designed in conjunction with pay, 
and applies to all employers subject to the EEO-1.\74\ By contrast, the 
ACA approach to ``service hours'' gives employers a range of choices 
about how to count hours, which would not provide clarity for the EEO-
1.\75\
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    \74\ Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must keep 
certain records for employees who are subject to the minimum wage 
provisions alone, or to both the minimum wage and overtime 
provisions, including records of hours worked each workday and total 
hours worked each workweek. 29 CFR 516.2(a)(7). Employers are not 
required to maintain hours worked records for employees who are 
exempt from minimum wage or minimum wage and overtime requirements. 
29 CFR 516.3. ``Hours worked'' under the FLSA includes ``(a) [a]ll 
time during which an employee is required to be on duty or on the 
employer's premises or at a prescribed workplace and (b) all time 
during which an employee is suffered or permitted to work whether or 
not he is required to do so.'' 29 CFR 778.223. Unlike the ACA 
definition, it does not include paid days off.
    \75\ Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all employers with 50 
or more full-time employees or equivalents are considered applicable 
large employers (ALEs) subject to ACA's shared responsibility 
provisions for providing health insurance. For this purpose, a full-
time employee is, for a calendar month, an employee employed on 
average at least 30 hours of service per week, or 130 hours of 
service per month. The ACA provides employers the flexibility to use 
different measurements of hours worked, or ``service hours,'' for 
different categories of exempt employees, provided the measures are 
reasonable and consistently applied. 26 CFR 54.4980H-3(b)(3)(i).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Under the FLSA, the term ``hours worked'' includes ``all time an 
employee must be on duty, or on the employer's premises or at any other 
prescribed place of work, from the beginning of the first principal 
activity of the workday to the end of the last principal activity of 
the workday.'' \76\ Numerous court decisions have also helped shape 
this definition. The FLSA and its regulations require employers to 
maintain certain records for nonexempt employees, including hours the 
employee worked each day and the total hours the employee worked each 
workweek.\77\ Payroll records are to be preserved for at least three 
years and records upon which wage computations were made (e.g., time 
cards) should be maintained for at least two years.\78\
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    \76\ U.S. Dept. of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Handy 
Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act (November, 2014), 
https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/hrg.htm.
    \77\ Additional FLSA recordkeeping requirements include (1) the 
employee's sex and occupation, (2) time and day of the week when 
employer's workweek begins, (3) basis on which employee's wages are 
paid, (4) employee's regular hourly rate, (5) employee's total daily 
or weekly straight-time earnings, (6) employee's total overtime 
earnings for the workweek, (7) employee's total wages each pay 
period, (8) date of payment to employee and pay period covered by 
payment, and much more. 29 CFR 516. See also United States 
Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #21: 
Recordkeeping Requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) 
(July, 2008), https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs21.htm.
    \78\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Federal contractors that file the EEO-1 also are subject to the 
2014 Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, which, once 
implemented by regulation, will require them to supply employees with a 
document each pay period showing the employee's hours worked, overtime 
hours, pay, and any additions made to, or deductions made from, pay as 
recorded for purposes of the FLSA.\79\ Adopting the FLSA definition of 
``hours worked'' for the EEO-1 promotes consistency for contractors 
subject to both requirements.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \79\ E.O. 13673, section 5, 79 FR 45309 (Aug. 5, 2014). The 
Paycheck Transparency provision of the Executive Order on Fair Pay 
Safe Workplaces provides: ``(a) Agencies shall ensure that, for 
contracts subject to section 2 of this order, provisions in 
solicitations and clauses in contracts shall provide that, in each 
pay period, contractors provide all individuals performing work 
under the contract for whom they are required to maintain wage 
records under the Fair Labor Standards Act; 40 U.S.C. chapter 31, 
subchapter IV (also known as the Davis-Bacon Act); 41 U.S.C. chapter 
67 (also known as the Service Contract Act); or equivalent State 
laws, with a document with information concerning that individual's 
hours worked, overtime hours, pay, and any additions made to or 
deductions made from pay. Agencies shall also require that 
contractors incorporate this same requirement into subcontracts 
covered by section 2 of this order. The document provided to 
individuals exempt from the overtime compensation requirements of 
the Fair Labor Standards Act need not include a record of hours 
worked if the contractor informs the individuals of their overtime 
exempt status. These requirements shall be deemed to be fulfilled if 
the contractor is complying with State or local requirements that 
the Secretary of Labor has determined are substantially similar to 
those required by this subsection.''
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3. Reporting Hours Worked for Nonexempt Employees
    The Commission will require private employers and contractors to 
report the ``hours worked'' as recorded for FLSA purposes for nonexempt 
employees in Component 2 of the proposed EEO-1. ``Hours worked'' will 
be reported for the total number of employees in each pay band by 
ethnicity, race, and gender, for the entire calendar year. For example, 
assume an employer reports on the EEO-1 that it employs four African 
American women as administrative support workers in the sixth pay band. 
The employer would report their total ``hours worked'' for the entire 
year in the appropriate pay band cell under ``Hours Worked'' (for 
example, 8,160 hours). If one of the workers resigned after the 
employer took its ``workforce snapshot'' but before December 31st, the 
employer would report only the total number of hours she actually 
worked that year prior to her resignation, which would account for her 
partial-year employment (for example, rather than 2,040 hours, it might 
report 1,900 hours).
4. Reporting Hours Worked for Exempt Employees
    Although the Commission seeks to minimize employer burden, the 
importance of hours-worked data necessitates its collection on the EEO-
1. The EEO-1 Instructions will give employers the option to: (1) Report 
a proxy of 40 hours per week for full-time exempt employees, and 20 
hours per week for part-time exempt employees, multiplied by the number 
of weeks the individuals were employed during the EEO-1 reporting year; 
or (2) provide actual hours of work by exempt employees during the EEO-
1 reporting year if the employer already maintains accurate records of 
this information.

[[Page 45489]]

    With this approach, the company official who certifies the firm's 
EEO-1 report would certify that the reports are ``accurate and . . . . 
prepared in accordance with the instructions.'' Since the new EEO-1 
instructions will give employers the option to record 40 hours per week 
for full-time exempt employees and 20 hours per week for part-time 
exempt employees, or to report actual hours-worked data for exempt 
employees, employers using the proxies can certify with confidence that 
they completed their EEO-1 reports accurately and in accordance with 
the instructions.

VIII. How To Report Data in Component 2: Pay Bands and Job Categories

    This 30-Day Notice does not change the proposal to collect W-2 
income and hours-worked data in the twelve pay bands used by the 
Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational 
Employment Statistics (OES),\80\ for each of the 10 EEO-1 job 
categories. Such data will support the EEOC's ability to discern 
significant pay disparities in the early stages of its investigations 
and, in conjunction with other information, to make more efficient 
decisions about how to plan the investigations going forward.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \80\ U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Survey 
Methods and Reliability Statement for the May 2015 Occupational 
Employment Statistics Survey, supra note 54 at 3, (stating that 
``employment refers to the number of workers who can be classified 
as full-or-part-time employees, including workers on paid vacations 
or other types of paid leave; exempt officers, executives, and staff 
members of incorporated firms; employees temporarily assigned to 
other units; and noncontract employees for whom the reporting unit 
is their permanent duty station regardless of whether that unit 
prepares their paychecks.'')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A. 60-Day Notice

    The 60-Day Notice proposed that Component 2 of the EEO-1 report 
would collect W-2 income and hours-worked data within twelve distinct 
pay bands for each job category. These pay bands were based on the 
twelve wage intervals used by the BLS for the OES survey, which is a 
semi-annual survey designed to measure employment and wage estimates 
\81\ for over 800 occupations.\82\ These OES pay bands are different 
from the pay bands used on the EEO-4 report now completed by state and 
local government employers.
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    \81\ U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
Occupational Employment Statistics Frequently Asked Questions, 
http://www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm.
    \82\ Id. The OES survey produces estimates of wages or salary 
paid to employees in non-farm occupations in the United States, in a 
particular State, or in a particular industry. The occupational wage 
estimates can be estimates of mean wages or percentiles, such as the 
median wage.

                        Table 1--EEO-4 Pay Bands
------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Pay bands                         Pay bands label
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1...................................  $100-$15,999.
2...................................  $16,000-$19,999.
3...................................  $20,000-$24,999.
4...................................  $25,000-$32,999.
5...................................  $33,000-$42,999.
6...................................  $43,000-$54,999.
7...................................  $55,000-$69,999.
8...................................  $70,000 and over.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


                    Table 2--Proposed EEO-1 Pay Bands
------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Pay bands                         Pay bands label
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1...................................  $19,239 and under.
2...................................  $19,240-$24,439.
3...................................  $24,440-$30,679.
4...................................  $30,680-$38,999.
5...................................  $39,000-$49,919.
6...................................  $49,920-$62,919.
7...................................  $62,920-$80,079.
8...................................  $80,080-$101,919.
9...................................  $101,920-$128,959.
10..................................  $128,960-$163,799.
11..................................  $163,800-$207,999.
12..................................  $208,000 and over.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Public Comments

    Many stakeholders argued that the twelve OES pay bands are overly 
broad, particularly for the highest pay band ($208,000 and over) and 
also for the lower or middle income pay bands ($30,000 to $80,000). 
Opponents of the proposal argued that broad pay bands would not produce 
reliable data because the employees within each pay band may have 
different levels of experience or hold different jobs within an 
organization. Some comments advocated for additional and narrower pay 
bands to better capture pay disparities.

C. 30-Day Notice

    Collecting W-2 income and hours-worked data in the twelve OES pay 
bands will enable the EEOC to gather pay data about most employees and 
EEO-1 filers, as the majority of wages in the United States are well 
below the highest OES pay band ($208,000 and over), even after 
including some types of supplemental income. According to the U.S. 
Census Bureau, the estimated median earnings for full-time, year round 
civilian workers 16 years of age and over were $43,545 in 2014. For 
management occupations, the median earnings were $71,112.\83\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \83\ U.S. Census Bureau, Table Packages, Full-Time, Year-Round 
Workers and Median Earnings in the Past 12 Months by Sex and 
Detailed Occupation: 2014, http://www.census.gov/people/io/publications/table_packages.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In Component 2 of the EEO-1, employers will report the number of 
employees whose annual W-2 income falls in each of the job category's 
twelve pay bands. For example, an employer may report that it has 
twelve employees in pay band 3 for Professionals, and that four are 
white men, four are Asian men, and four are white women.
    The EEOC is not convinced that using twelve pay bands in 
conjunction with the EEO-1 job categories will undermine the utility of 
W-2 income and hours-worked data. The EEOC does not intend or expect 
that this data will identify specific, similarly situated comparators 
or that it will establish pay discrimination as a legal matter. 
Therefore, it is not critical that each EEO-1 pay band include only the 
same or similar occupations. The data will be useful for identifying 
patterns or correlations that can inform the early stages of the 
investigative process, as explained in more detail in section IX.
    In addition, many EEO-1 firms and establishments do not report 
widely divergent occupations in each EEO-1 job category. It also is 
likely that similar firms and establishments in the same geographic 
area will have similar distributions of occupations within the job 
groups and pay bands, thus making statistical comparisons between EEO-1 
reports a reasonable approach to using this data.

IX. How the EEOC Will Use W-2 and Hours-Worked Data

A. 60-Day Notice

    As explained in the 60-Day Notice, Component 2 data would support 
EEOC data analysis at the early stages of an investigation, using 
statistical tests to identify significant disparities in reported pay. 
EEOC enforcement staff who conduct these analyses would use them, in 
the larger context of other available economic data and information, to 
evaluate whether and how to investigate the allegations of 
discrimination in more depth. Moreover, the 60-Day Notice also 
explained how employers would be able to use the summary pay data that 
the EEOC intends to publish to generally assess their own pay 
practices.

B. Public Comments

    Employers opposing the proposal expressed concern that the EEOC 
would make unfounded inferences of discrimination based on its 
statistical analysis of the EEO-1 Component 2 pay data which, in turn, 
would result in

[[Page 45490]]

unwarranted and burdensome EEOC investigations. Some interested parties 
criticized the particular statistical analyses that the EEOC described 
in the 60-Day Notice, arguing that these tests would not yield 
meaningful results when applied to data reported in pay bands and broad 
EEO-1 job categories. These commenters also raised concerns about the 
dangers of Type I or Type II errors in analyzing Component 2 data: In 
statistics, ``Type I'' errors are referred to as ``false positives'' 
and ``Type II'' errors are ``false negatives.'' \84\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \84\ Type I errors represent the possibility of rejecting a null 
hypothesis when it is correct. For example, a null hypothesis might 
be that the earnings of African Americans and whites are the same 
and a Type I error would be rejecting it as false when it is true. 
Type II errors represent the opposite: The possibility of accepting 
the null hypothesis (for example, that the earnings of African 
Americans and whites are the same) as true when in fact it is false. 
Type I errors in this context could suggest a need for an 
investigation where it may not be needed; Type II errors in this 
context could result in victims of pay discrimination not receiving 
relief for discrimination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, employers expressed skepticism that the EEOC's reports 
based on aggregated EEO-1 pay data would be useful for evaluating their 
own pay practices and promoting voluntary compliance. Several employers 
explained that they do not use W-2 data to analyze their own 
compensation practices, but rather rely on more complete compensation 
data that they have at their disposal.

C. 30-Day Notice

    This 30-Day Notice expands on the discussion in the 60-Day Notice 
and explains in more detail how the data collected with this 
information collection will support enforcement of, and compliance 
with, Title VII, the EPA, and E.O. 11246.
1. Early Assessment of Charges of Discrimination
    Currently, the EEOC enforcement staff can retrieve a respondent's 
EEO-1 report using existing EEO-1 analytics software to assess the 
distribution of different demographics (sex, race, and ethnicity) in an 
employer's job groups. When W-2 income and hours-worked data is added 
to the EEO-1 report, the EEOC's EEO-1 analytic software tool will be 
expanded to allow for the examination of pay disparities based on job 
category, pay bands, and gender, ethnicity, or race. For example, if a 
charging party alleges that she was paid less than her male colleagues 
in a similar job, the EEOC's enforcement staff might use the expanded 
EEO-1 analytics tool to generate a report comparing the distribution of 
the pay of women to that of men in the same EEO-1 job category.\85\ 
They also might use statistical tools to determine generally whether 
there are significant disparities in reported pay in job groups based 
on race, gender, or ethnicity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \85\ Enforcement staff could choose to compare men and women in 
one particular EEO-1 job category, for multiple job categories, or 
even all job categories.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    EEOC enforcement staff could then examine how the employer compares 
to similar employers in its labor market \86\ by using a statistical 
test to compare the distribution of women's pay in the respondent's 
EEO-1 report to the distribution of women's pay among the respondent's 
competitors in the same labor market. With the proposed addition of 
hours-worked data to the EEO-1, statistical tests could be used to 
determine whether pay disparities remain among relevant groups such as 
men and women, controlling for hours worked. More specifically, 
statistical tests could determine whether factors such as race, 
ethnicity, gender, and hours worked impact the distribution of 
individuals in pay bands. The EEOC envisions that any statistical test 
would be accompanied by an indication of the practical significance of 
pay differences.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \86\ EEO-1 reports are identified by location and by each 
establishment's 5-dight NAICS industry codes. The U.S. Census Bureau 
maintains only one NAICS code for each establishment based on its 
primary business activity. The Census Bureau states: ``[i]deally, 
the primary business activity of an establishment is determined by 
relative share of production costs and/or capital investment. In 
practice, other variables, such as revenue, value of shipments, or 
employment, are used as proxies. The Census Bureau generally uses 
revenue or value of shipments to determine an establishment's 
primary business activity.'' U.S. Census Bureau, ``North American 
Industry Classification System--Frequently Asked Questions,'' 
https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/faqs/faqs.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    After considering the results of several statistical analyses in 
conjunction with allegations in the charge, and sometimes also 
assessing how the EEO-1 pay data compares to statistics for comparable 
workers using Census data, EEOC enforcement staff would decide how to 
focus the investigation and what information to request from the 
employer. When EEOC enforcement staff requests information from an 
employer, the employer has the opportunity to explain its practices, 
provide additional data, and explain the non-discriminatory reasons for 
its pay practices and decisions. Only after considering all of this 
information, and possibly additional information, would the EEOC reach 
a conclusion about whether discrimination was the likely cause of the 
pay disparities.
    The EEOC has tested whether statistical tests, and the EEO-1 pay 
data, would be useful tools in the investigation of charges of 
discrimination and has found them to be effective.\87\ The EEOC used 
two databases to test the utility of the planned analyses. The first 
was the EEO-4 database that the EEOC currently uses to collect and 
analyze pay data from state and local governments. Since the EEO-4 has 
fewer and different pay bands than the EEOC proposes for the EEO-1 pay 
data collection, the EEOC also used a synthetic database. The term 
``synthetic'' does not mean that the data was not real. Rather, the 
EEOC created a large confidential database from HRIS data obtained in 
actual EEOC investigations that contained certain variables of 
interest, in particular pay rate history and job titles for all 
employees, and the statistical tests referenced above were run. Other 
important variables such as ``race,'' ``gender,'' and ``EEO-1'' job 
codes were randomly generated for databases that lacked this 
information. The results supported the EEOC's conclusion that these 
statistical tests provide insights that are useful in developing a 
request for information or deciding whether an investigation of a 
charge should have a more limited scope.\88\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \87\ Sage Computing, supra notes 3, 52, and 56.
    \88\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As noted above, some critics disputed the EEOC's choice of 
statistical tests, arguing that they would not be useful for data 
reported in broad pay bands and job categories. The EEOC's Pilot Study 
reported on a 2007 study finding that, even if collecting income data 
in bands results in a loss of information, that loss would likely be 
small and of little concern to many researchers, and would be balanced 
by reduced cost and burden.\89\ Other researchers have identified the 
value of banded pay data even to the point of being useful in 
estimating mean incomes within an accuracy of 1-3 percent.\90\ This 
research suggests that critics who argue that one cannot detect mean 
differences that are smaller than the pay bands, or bins, are 
incorrect.\91\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \89\ Id. citing Micklewright, John and Schnepf, Sylke V., How 
Reliable are Income Data Collected with a Single Question? (Nov., 
2007), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1047981.
    \90\ Paul T. von Hippel, Samuel V. Scarpino and Igor Holas, 
Robust estimation of inequality from binned incomes, Sociological 
Methodology (Jun. 6, 2016), http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.4061.
    \91\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In addition, the EEOC is confident that the risk of Type I (false 
positive) or Type II (false negative) errors will not undermine its 
statistical analyses of Component 2 data. The chances of incurring Type 
I errors (false positives) are related to the probability level used

[[Page 45491]]

in the statistical significance test. The EEOC follows judicially 
recognized statistical standards for identifying meaningful 
discrepancies,\92\ and therefore is confident that the probability 
level it uses is effective at minimizing the risk of Type I (false 
positive) errors. By contrast, the risk of Type II (false negative) 
error is inversely related to the sample size: The smaller the sample 
size, the more likely a Type II error. If a sample size is so small 
that the EEOC enforcement staff is concerned about Type II errors, it 
will consider analyzing a differently configured, larger sample. Even 
if it forgoes such analysis due to an elevated risk of Type II errors, 
enforcement staff will study the EEO-1 for other relevant information 
and analyze additional data from other sources. In fact, EEOC 
enforcement staff expects to analyze data from other sources regardless 
of the risk of error.
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    \92\ Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. United States, 433 U.S. 299, 311 
n.17 (1977) (explaining that ``a fluctuation of more than two or 
three standard deviations would undercut the hypothesis that 
decisions were being made randomly with respect to [a protected 
trait]''); Wright v. Stern, 450 F.Supp.2d 335, 363 (S.D.N.Y. 2006) 
(denying motion for summary judgment in case alleging discrimination 
against African-American and Hispanic employees in promotions and 
compensation, the court noted that, ``[t]hough not dispositive, 
statistics demonstrating a disparity of two standard deviations 
outside of the norm are generally considered statistically 
significant.'').
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2. EEOC Publications Analyzing Aggregate EEO-1 Data
    Using aggregated EEO-1 data, Census data, and potentially other 
data sources, the EEOC expects to periodically publish reports on pay 
disparities by race, sex, industry, occupational groupings, and 
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Particularly after a few years of 
data collection, these reports will provide useful comparative data. 
For smaller employers and others that do not hire consultants to 
analyze their compensation structures, these reports will be especially 
informative in light of the business case for equal pay and the need to 
comply with state equal pay laws.
    The EEOC's publication of aggregated pay data, in conjunction with 
the employer's preparation of the EEO-1 report itself, may be useful 
tools for employers to engage in voluntary self-assessment of pay 
practices. For contractors, such self-assessment is encouraged by the 
OFCCP Rule on Discrimination on the Basis of Sex.\93\ OFCCP states that 
``[e]ach contractor may continue to choose the assessment method that 
best fits with its workforce and compensation practices.'' \94\ 
Although the OFCCP rule does not create new obligations with respect to 
a covered contractor's self-assessment of its compensation practices, 
it does provide additional guidance about the kinds of compensation 
practices the contractors should evaluate to ensure their compliance 
with E.O. 11246.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \93\ 41 CFR 60-20. See also 81 FR 39109 (June 15, 2016).
    \94\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. EEOC Training on the Pay Data Collection
    The EEOC will ensure its internal capacity to use the EEO-1 pay 
data effectively by supplementing existing training for EEOC 
statisticians, investigators, and attorneys about how EEO-1 pay data 
and the updated EEO-1 analytics tool can be used to improve the 
agency's enforcement work. EEOC enforcement staff will receive periodic 
training on how to use the expanded EEO-1 analytics software tool to 
examine pay data and identify any disparities. EEOC personnel who 
conduct intake also would receive periodic training to help them 
``issue spot'' potential pay discrimination and ask appropriate 
questions to collect relevant anecdotal evidence of possible 
discrimination and information about employer policies and practices. 
Further, the agency would provide specialized training to its lead 
systemic investigators. Finally, as discussed more fully below, the 
EEOC would continue to ensure that staff is trained with regard to 
confidentiality obligations with respect to pay data.
    The EEOC also would provide enhanced technical assistance and 
support to employers with seminars or webinars, training, and outreach 
and education materials. Such materials may include best practice 
guides and self-assessment tools to promote voluntary compliance and 
assist employers in identifying and correcting discriminatory pay 
policies and practices. They may also identify practices that could 
lead to pay discrimination, such as subjective pay decision-making 
practices, establishing salary by relying heavily on prior salary, and 
setting salary based in large part on negotiations.
    Finally, the EEOC would conduct outreach to other stakeholders, 
including employees and their advocates, and academic researchers. 
Outreach to employees and their advocates would focus on ``know your 
rights'' trainings with respect to equal pay for equal work and also 
include training about how to use the EEOC's planned aggregated pay 
data reports for research and informational purposes.

X. Confidentiality of EEO-1 Data

    This 30-Day Notice expands on the discussion in the 60-Day Notice 
regarding the privacy and confidentiality protections for Component 2 
data. The EEOC has successfully protected the confidentiality of EEO-1 
data for over 50 years, since this data was first collected. 
Recognizing that employers are concerned both about the confidentiality 
of their business data and the privacy of employees' pay information, 
the EEOC and OFCCP have committed to vigorously guarding its privacy 
and confidentiality, as explained below.

A. 60-Day Notice

    The 60-Day Notice emphasized that Title VII subjects the EEOC to 
strict confidentiality requirements, subject to criminal penalties; 
that OFCCP defers to the EEOC on disclosure of all non-contractor data; 
and that the OFCCP ensures the confidentiality of contractor data to 
the maximum extent permissible by law. In the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC 
explained that EEO-1 Component 2 data would not include any employee 
personally identifiable information and, since EEO-1 pay and hours-
worked data would be anonymous and aggregated, personally identifying 
information would not be readily apparent.

B. Public Comments

    Employers expressed concern that the addition of sensitive pay data 
to the EEO-1 would make it more valuable to their competitors and that 
any breach in confidentiality would be significantly more costly than 
with the current EEO-1. They also expressed concern about the privacy 
of the data, because an individual's pay could be disclosed if, for 
example, the employee was one of only a few employees matching a 
particular race/ethnicity background and gender in a cell on the EEO-1 
and the EEO-1 report were disclosed. Some employers expressed concern 
that federal and state agencies may not be bound by Title VII's 
confidentiality requirements, and some employers urged the EEOC to 
prevail on Congress to amend Title VII to expressly extend the 
statute's confidentiality provisions to other federal and state 
agencies that might get EEO-1 data.

C. 30-Day Notice

1. Legal Confidentiality
a. EEOC
    As recognized by employers and explained in the 60-Day Notice, 
Title VII forbids the EEOC or any EEOC officer or employee from making 
public any

[[Page 45492]]

information, including EEO-1 data, before a Title VII proceeding is 
instituted that involves that information.\95\ EEOC staff who violate 
this prohibition are guilty of a criminal misdemeanor and can be 
imprisoned.
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    \95\ 42 U.S.C. 2000e-8(e).
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    The EEOC directly imposes this Title VII confidentiality 
requirement on all of its contractors, including contract workers and 
contractor companies, as a condition of their contracts. With respect 
to other federal agencies with a legitimate law enforcement purpose, 
the EEOC gives access to information collected under Title VII only if 
the agencies agree, by letter or memorandum of understanding, to comply 
with the confidentiality provisions of Title VII.
    Finally, the text of Title VII itself states that the EEOC may only 
give state and local fair employment practices agencies (FEPAs) 
information (including EEO-1 data) about employers in their 
jurisdiction on the condition that they not make it public.\96\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \96\ 42 U.S.C. 2000e-8(d). See also EEOC, EEO-1 Survey System 
Privacy Impact Assessment, https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/privacyimpact.cfm.
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    For the EEOC, its agents and contractors, and the FEPAs, Title VII 
only permits disclosure of information after suit is filed on the 
issues that were investigated at the administrative level.
b. OFCCP
    Even though OFCCP obtains EEO-1 reports for federal contractors and 
subcontractors (contractors) through the Joint Reporting Committee with 
the EEOC, OFCCP obtains this information pursuant to its own legal 
authority under E.O. 11246 and its implementing regulations.\97\
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    \97\ 41 CFR 60-1.7(a)(1).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    OFCCP will notify contractors of any FOIA request for their EEO-1 
pay and hours-worked data. If a contractor objects to disclosure, OFCCP 
will not disclose the data if OFCCP determines that the contractor's 
objection is valid. FOIA Exemptions 3 and 4 recognize the value of this 
data and provide, in combination with the Trade Secrets Act, the 
necessary tools to appropriately protect it from public disclosure. 
OFCCP will protect the confidentiality of EEO-1 pay and hours-worked 
data to the maximum extent possible consistent with FOIA.
    With respect to companies that are not federal contractors or 
subcontractors under OFCCP's jurisdiction, the confidentiality 
provision of Section 709(e) applies. OFCCP will refer all such FOIA 
requests for EEO-1 data to the EEOC for a response. The EEOC, in turn, 
is subject to Title VII confidentiality and cannot disclose any of its 
EEO-1 data to the public, except in an aggregated format that protects 
the confidentiality of each employer's information. Any FOIA request by 
a member of the public for such disaggregated EEO-1 data will be denied 
by the EEOC under Exemption 3 of the FOIA.
2. Data Protection and Security
    The EEOC takes extensive measures to protect the confidentiality 
and integrity of EEO-1 data in its possession. First, all EEOC and FEPA 
staff \98\ receive annual training in data protection and security. The 
EEOC maintains a robust cyber security and privacy program, in 
compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 
2014.\99\
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    \98\ As noted in text above, all FEPAs sign a contractual 
agreement with the EEOC that requires them to follow the 
confidentiality provisions set forth in Title VII.
    \99\ 44 U.S.C. 3551; see also relevant provision 44 U.S.C. 3554 
discussing federal agency responsibilities for protecting federal 
information and information systems.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The EEOC also complies with a comprehensive set of security and 
privacy controls to protect organizational operations and information 
system assets against a diverse set of threats, including hostile 
cyber-attacks, natural disasters, structural failures, and human 
errors. The EEOC's systems are monitored on an ongoing basis to assure 
compliance with an extensive set of security and privacy requirements 
derived from legislation, Executive Orders, policies, directives, and 
standards.\100\ Agency information technology systems are subjected to 
weekly security scans by the Department of Homeland Security, annual 
internal audits performed by the EEOC's Office of Inspector General, 
and expert third-party audits for best practices and compliance with 
cyber-security standards. Current protections include regular internal 
and external vulnerability scanning and penetration testing, 
comprehensive real-time anti-virus scanning and protection on all 
desktops and servers, Internet and email filtering for malware and 
spam, strong firewall protections and intrusion detection systems, 
compliance with security benchmark configuration settings, deep 
discovery advanced network security analysis and monitoring, secure 
domain name server configurations, automatic server/firewall monitoring 
and logging, security awareness training, and comprehensive disaster 
recovery planning and testing.
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    \100\ 40 U.S.C. 1401 et seq., Information Technology Management 
Reform Act, identifying standards and guidelines developed by the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for federal 
computing systems. NIST, NIST Special Publication 800-53, Rev 4, 
Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and 
Organizations (April 2013), http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-53r4.pdf (explaining specific 
security controls required by the Federal Information Security 
Management Act of 2002 and thereafter the Federal Information 
Security Modernization Act of 2014).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The online EEO-1 portal of the Joint Reporting Committee allows 
firms that currently upload EEO-1 data files to encrypt their data or 
even create a file transfer site for EEOC to download the data. After 
collecting and reconciling EEO-1 data through a process that may 
involve input from the employer or contractor, the Joint Reporting 
Committee at the EEOC provides the database to OFCCP on an encrypted 
storage device.

XI. Paperwork Reduction Act Burden Estimates

A. Background

    The revised EEO-1 data collection has two components. The first 
component (Component 1) will collect information identical to that 
collected by the currently approved EEO-1, through which employers 
report data on employees' ethnicity, race, and sex by job category. The 
second component (Component 2) will collect data on employees' W-2 (Box 
1) income and hours worked. Because of the complexity of this PRA 
burden calculation, the EEOC is providing the following background 
information to explain the rationale behind its methodologies for 
calculating the annual and one-time burden of filing EEO-1 reports.
    The OMB's PRA guidance prescribes the factors for agencies to 
consider in calculating annual reporting and one-time implementation 
costs. The prescribed PRA calculation is focused on the time it takes 
filers to complete the tasks required for the proposed information 
collection and the hourly rates of the employees who spend that time. 
For this reason, the following discussion of the costs of transitioning 
and annually filing Components 1 and 2 of the EEO-1 must be formulated 
through the PRA analysis of hours spent and hourly rates.
    OMB's PRA regulations also require consideration of how to reduce 
the burden of a data collection through the use of technology and 
automation.\101\

[[Page 45493]]

This consideration is particularly relevant to EEO-1 reporting. In the 
years since the EEOC first estimated the PRA burden of the EEO-1 based 
only on the time to fill in the cells on a paper EEO-1 report, there 
have been major advances in technology both for employers and the Joint 
Reporting Committee. Many employers now rely on HRIS and automated 
payroll systems.\102\ The Joint Reporting Committee now utilizes an 
online EEO-1 portal for the confidential filing of EEO-1 reports, 
either by digital upload or by data entry onto a password-protected, 
partially pre-populated digital EEO-1.
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    \101\ Agencies must ``evaluat[e] . . . whether (and if so, to 
what extent) the burden on respondents can be reduced by use of 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., 
permitting electronic submission of responses.'' 5 CFR 1320.8(a)(5).
    \102\ International Public Management Association for Human 
Resources, Public Personnel Management, Volume 39, No. 3, Fall 2010, 
http://ipma-hr.org/files/pdf/ppm/ppmfall2010.pdf (reporting that 90% 
of human resources departments used some form of HRIS).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Throughout the Joint Reporting Committee's transition to this new 
system, the EEOC continued to calculate the PRA burden based on its 
original method of counting all the cells on a paper report and 
calculating the time needed to enter data into each of them. However, 
with the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC concluded that both digital 
recordkeeping and digital filing were sufficiently well-established to 
transition to a new PRA methodology more suited to the new technology 
and the time-savings it generated.\103\ The EEOC's new PRA 
methodology--necessarily expressed in the PRA's terms of hours and 
hourly labor rates--focuses on the time needed by the employer's staff 
to complete tasks such as reading the EEO-1 instructions, collecting, 
verifying, validating, certifying, and submitting the report. 
Therefore, in the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC considered for the first time 
the time savings generated by this task-based approach stemming from 
technology.\104\ This is the reason that the burden of filing the EEO-1 
actually declined with the PRA calculations in 60-Day Notice, relative 
to the paper-based calculation method previously used.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \103\ 81 FR 5113, 5120 (Feb. 1, 2016).
    \104\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC concluded that most employers would 
be filing the EEO-1 with a digital file upload by the time they file 
their EEO-1 reports for 2017 and 2018. Therefore, in the 60-Day Notice, 
the EEOC reasoned that ``each additional report filed [would have] just 
a marginal additional cost.'' \105\ Accordingly, the burden calculation 
in the 60-Day Notice was based on the number of firms filing one or 
more EEO-1 reports, not on the number of reports submitted or the 
number of separate establishments submitting reports. The EEOC's PRA 
burden calculations also assumed that all employees working on the EEO-
1 would be administrative staff paid an hourly rate of $24.23 per hour.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \105\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The EEOC's intent in calculating respondent burden for the 60-Day 
Notice was to recognize the cost and time savings associated with the 
accelerating trend toward greater automation. However, employers' 
public comments indicated that the EEOC's estimates reflected a level 
of automation that was unlikely to be attained imminently. Some of 
these comments included estimates about the annual time and costs of 
completing the EEO-1. While some firms stated that they spent less time 
each year on the EEO-1 than the EEOC estimated in the 60-Day Notice, 
many firms reported that they spent more time and used more varied 
professional staff. These same commenters observed that they used data 
uploads less frequently than the EEOC had projected.
    The EEOC carefully considered employers' input, yet, their comments 
as a whole reflected widely discrepant estimates of the time needed, 
jobs involved, and HRIS and software costs associated with digital EEO-
1 reporting. Although the EEOC recognizes that the EEO-1 may involve 
more time than it estimated in the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC also 
concludes that the amount of time a filer spends each year completing 
this report varies, because each employer is different in terms of 
number of establishments, number of employees involved in producing the 
report, time spent by those employees and their rates of pay, and 
sophistication of HRIS. Due to the wide range of estimates provided 
about annual reporting costs, the EEOC also relied on its own 
experience collecting the EEO-1 reports and working with EEO-1 
stakeholders over the years.
    In conclusion, the EEOC adjusted its methodology for calculating 
PRA annual burden in this 30-Day Notice. First, the EEOC took into 
account the time and pay rates for a range of employees at both the 
firm- and establishment- levels who are responsible for preparing and 
filing the EEO-1. The EEOC now accounts for time to be spent annually 
on EEO-1 reporting by everyone from the executive who certifies it, to 
the lawyer who reviews it and the human resource professionals who 
prepare it with the support of information technology professionals and 
clericals.
    Second, the EEOC no longer assumes that all the EEO-1 reports for 
2017 and 2018 will be submitted by one data upload filed by the firm on 
behalf of all the establishments. While still reflecting that the bulk 
of the tasks performed in completing the EEO-1 report will be completed 
at the firm level due to the centrality of automation, the EEOC's 30-
Day Notice recognizes that there are certain tasks that will be 
performed at the establishment level for employers who enter their EEO-
1 data directly onto the Joint Reporting Committee's secure portal. 
Therefore, the 30-Day Notice burden calculations are based on the 
number of hours needed to complete the tasks at the firm level and also 
at the establishment level for the proportion of EEO-1 filers who do 
not now use centralized, secure data uploads. To make these 
calculations, the EEOC distinguished the time spent at the firm and 
establishment levels on the different types of EEO-1 reports, such as 
single-establishment Type 1 reports, Type 2 consolidated reports for 
employers with multiple establishments, and Type 6 or 8 reports for 
small establishments (under 50 employees).
    For those employers who have staff enter EEO-1 data online, which 
is closest digital equivalent to completing a paper form by hand, the 
Joint Reporting Committee's password-protected, individualized portal 
prompts the employer with pre-populated EEO-1 forms that already 
include identifying information and the prior year totals. Moreover, 
the Joint Reporting Committee's online portal does not compel these 
employers to enter ``zeros'' in the cells for which they do not submit 
data. No EEO-1 filers enter data in every cell, so basing the annual 
PRA burden on the total number of cells on the EEO-1 form would be 
inaccurate.
    Therefore, as explained in detail below, the total estimated annual 
burden hour cost in 2017 and 2018 for those contractors that will 
complete and submit only Component 1 (contractors with 50-99 employees) 
will be $1,872,792.41. The total estimated annual burden hour cost in 
2017 and 2018 for employers and contractors that will complete both 
Components 1 and 2 will be $53,546,359.08.
    The EEOC estimates that for these filers submitting both Component 
1 and 2 data in 2017 and 2018, the addition of pay data will increase 
the estimated annual burden hour costs by a total of $25,364,064.80 or 
an average of $416.58 per EEO-1 filer each year, using the 30-Day PRA 
analysis. This is an average

[[Page 45494]]

estimate per filer, and actual costs will vary, as explained in this 
Notice.

B. 60-Day Notice

    In the 60-Day Notice, the EEOC estimated burden based on 
centralized electronic, rather than paper, filing of the EEO-1. Costs 
were calculated assuming that all tasks were performed at the firm 
level.
    Burden Statement--2016: For reporting year 2016, when all filers 
will continue to submit only Component 1 demographic data, the EEOC 
estimated the total annual burden hours required to complete the EEO-1 
as 228,296.4 hours, with an associated total annual burden hour cost of 
$5,531,621.77.
    Burden Statement--Component 1 Only: The 60-Day Notice stated that 
starting in 2017, the estimated number of annual respondents 
(contractor filers) who will submit Component 1 only would be 
6,260.\106\ The 60-Day Notice estimated the burden in 2017 on 
contractor filers with 50 to 99 employees as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \106\ 81 FR 5113 (Feb. 1, 2016). Of the 67,146 firms that filed 
EEO-1 reports in 2014, 6,260 were federal contractor filers with 
fewer than 100 employees.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Annual Burden Calculation: The total annual burden hours 
required to complete Component 1 of the EEO-1 data collection in 2017 
and 2018 was estimated to be 21,284 hours each year, with an associated 
total annual burden hour cost of $515,711.32. This figure used an 
average wage rate of $24.23 for employees working on the EEO-1, based 
on the conclusion that administrative support staff would perform the 
work in completing an EEO-1 report.
    Burden Statement--Components 1 and 2: The 60-Day Notice estimated 
the number of annual respondents that would submit both Components 1 
and 2 starting with the 2017 reporting cycle at 60,886 private industry 
and contractor filers. Filers required to complete both Components 1 
and 2 were estimated to incur 401,847.6 burden hours annually or 6.6 
hours per filer.
     Annual Burden Calculation: The estimated total annual 
burden hours needed for filers to report demographic and W-2 income and 
hours-worked data via Components 1 and 2 of the revised EEO-1 was 
estimated at 401,847.6, with an associated total annual burden hour 
cost of $9,736,767.35. This burden estimate includes reading 
instructions and collecting, merging, validating, and reporting the 
data electronically.\107\
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    \107\ 81 FR 5113 (Feb. 1, 2016). This estimate was calculated as 
follows: 6.6 hours per respondent x 60,886 respondents = 401,847.6 
hours x $24.23 per hour = $9,736,767.35. See also U.S. Dept. of 
Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee 
Compensation--December 2013 (March 2014), http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_03122014.htm (listing total compensation 
for administrative support as $24.23 per hour).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     One-Time Implementation Burden: The estimated one-time 
implementation burden hour cost for submitting the information required 
by Component 2 of the revised EEO-1 Report was estimated as 
$23,000,295.\108\ This calculation was based on the one-time cost for 
developing queries related to Component 2 in an existing human 
resources information system, which was estimated to take 8 hours per 
filer at a wage rate of $47.22 per hour.
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    \108\ 81 FR 5113 (Feb. 1, 2016). This estimate was calculated as 
follows: 8 hours per respondent x 60,886 employers = 487,088 x 
$47.22 per hour = $23,000,295. See also U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau 
of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation--
December 2013, supra note 108 (listing total compensation for a 
professional as $47.22 per hour).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The 60-Day Notice also estimated that the addition of W-2 income 
data to the EEO-1 would result in the EEOC incurring $318,000 in one-
time costs and would raise the EEOC's recurring internal staffing cost 
by $290,478 due to the increased staff time needed to process the 
additional data.

C. 30-Day Notice

    In response to concerns raised in the public comments to the 60-Day 
Notice, this 30-Day Notice reflects an increased burden estimate by: 
(1) Reflecting varying labor costs for the different types of staff 
involved with preparing the EEO-1, (2) adding labor costs for report-
level functions, and (3) increasing the total number of burden hours a 
firm would need to read the EEO-1 instructions and to collect, verify, 
and enter EEO-1 data on the EEO-1 online portal. This methodology 
increases the total number of hours spent annually, even though the 30-
Day Notice reduced overall burden by no longer requiring employers to 
make special W-2 income calculations for the EEO-1. This reflects 
employers' feedback about the annual EEO-1 reporting burden.
1. Annual Burden Hours
    The 30-Day Notice revises the annual burden hour estimates to add 
the estimated time spent on firm-level functions by several different 
types of employees. These estimates are informed by the comments on the 
60-Day Notice, based on the EEOC's experiences in providing technical 
assistance to employers, and within the range of time suggested by 
public comments.
    To submit a report containing EEO-1 Component 1 data, the EEOC now 
assumes that, at the firm level, computer specialists would need to 
spend 4 hours, senior human resource managers, corporate legal counsel, 
and chief executive officers would each spend 1 hour, and data entry 
clerks and clerical staff would each spend 0.5 hours, for a total of 8 
hours to complete firm-level functions.
    Based on information received during the comment period, the 
addition of Component 2 data would increase the total time spent by 
each of these employees by a factor of 1.9. Therefore, the EEOC 
estimates that beginning with the 2017 EEO-1, each firm reporting both 
Component 1 and Component 2 data would require 7.6 hours by computer 
specialists, 1.9 hours each by senior human resource managers, 
corporate legal counsel, and chief executive officers, and 0.95 hours 
each by data entry clerks and clerical staff, for a total of 15.2 hours 
per firm for firm-level functions.
    In order to analyze annual reporting burden as accurately as 
possible, the EEOC now also considers the time and effort associated 
with completing the different types of EEO-1 reports. There are six 
types of EEO-1 reports, as detailed in the footnote.\109\ All reports 
except the Type 6 report include the requested EEO-1 workforce data; 
the Type 6 report includes only the employer's name, address, and the 
number of employees in each establishment with fewer than 50 employees. 
An employer having establishments with fewer than 50 employees chooses 
between filing one Type 6 report or multiple Type 8 reports (a full 
EEO-1 report for the establishment). If it chooses to file separate 
Type 8 reports for each establishment with fewer than 50 employees, the 
Joint Reporting Committee does not require it to complete a 
consolidated EEO-1 for the entire firm; rather, the Joint Reporting 
Committee's software generates a Type 2 report for the employer. 
However, if the employer chooses to submit a Type 6 report, it must 
also complete a full consolidated report. Accordingly, firms that have 
establishments with fewer than 50 employees either submit Type 8 
reports (one for each establishment) or a Type 6 report (a list 
covering all establishments) plus a Type 2 report.
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    \109\ Type 1 (single establishment firm); Type 2 (consolidated 
report for headquarters and multi-establishment firm); Type 3 
(headquarters report); Type 4 (report for establishments with over 
50 employees); Type 6 (list of establishments with under 50 
employees); and Type 8 (detailed report for establishments with 
under 50 employees).
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    Finally, based on the EEOC's experience, most firms complete all 
the

[[Page 45495]]

tasks associated with filing EEO-1 Type 1, 2, and 6 reports at the firm 
level. By contrast, for Type 3, 4 and 8 reports, some of the tasks are 
performed at the firm level, but others are performed at the 
establishment level. The EEOC's 30-Day Notice annual burden estimates 
therefore reflect time spent on establishment-level tasks associated 
with Type 3, 4, and 8 reports, while time spent on tasks associated 
with Type 1, 2, and 6 reports (and the firm-level functions associated 
with Types 3, 4, and 8) are included in the firm-level estimates.\110\
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    \110\ Because of this, the EEOC's burden estimates for firm-
level tasks are inflated for those firms electing to file Type 8 
reports, because the firm-level estimates include time spent 
completing a Type 2 and a Type 6 report, even though firms that opt 
to complete Type 8 reports do not also submit a Type 2 or Type 6 
report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The EEOC assumes that human resource specialists and data entry 
clerks will perform all establishment-level functions. For firms filing 
only Component 1 of the EEO-1, the EEOC estimates that for each 
establishment report submitted, a human resource specialist and a data 
entry clerk would each spend 0.5 hours on establishment-level 
functions, for a total of 1 hour per report. Beginning in 2017, firms 
filing both Component 1 and Component 2 of the EEO-1 would require 0.95 
hours each from the human resource specialist and the data entry clerk 
on establishment-level functions, for a total of 1.9 hours per report.
    In 2014, 1,449 firms submitted their EEO-1 reports via data upload, 
but they submitted 329,944 Type 3, 4, and 8 reports.\111\ The EEOC 
estimates that firms using data upload will need to spend less time at 
the establishment level than firms submitting their reports by data 
entry. For firms using data upload, the EEOC estimates that data entry 
clerks will not need to perform any establishment-level tasks.
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    \111\ In 2014, contractor filers with 50-99 employees submitted 
86 Type 3, 4, and 8 reports via data upload.
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2. Hourly Wage Rates
    Using figures reflecting median pay obtained from the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics,\112\ the EEOC's 30-Day Notice uses hourly wage rates 
as follows: Computer specialist $24.75, senior human resource manager 
$50.21, corporate legal counsel $55.69, chief executive officer $49.37, 
data entry clerk $13.69, clerical staff $15.41, and human resource 
specialist $28.06. See Table 3 for an illustration of the jobs, hours, 
and wage rates described in this Notice. Based on the EEOC's 
experience, the bulk of the work is now performed by computer 
specialists and senior human resource managers. At the establishment 
level, the EEOC concluded that EEO-1 reporting work is more likely to 
be performed by data entry clerks and human resource specialists, 
resulting in a lower average wage rate for establishment-level 
functions.
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    \112\ U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
Occupational Outlook Handbook, http://www.bls.gov/ooh/.

                                      Table 3--EEO-1 Jobs, Hours, and Wages
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                  Hours spent on
                                                                  Hours spent on       EEO-1        Hourly wage
                            Job title                                  EEO-1      Components 1 &       rates
                                                                    Component 1          2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------only-------------------------------------
                                              Firm-Level Functions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Specialist.............................................               4             7.6          $24.75
Senior Human Resource Manager...................................               1             1.9           50.21
Corporate Legal Counsel.........................................               1             1.9           55.69
Chief Executive Officer.........................................               1             1.9           49.37
Data Entry Clerk................................................             0.5            0.95           13.69
Clerical Staff..................................................             0.5            0.95           15.41
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                                             Report-Level Functions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human Resource Specialist.......................................             0.5            0.95           28.06
Data Entry Clerk................................................             0.5            0.95           13.69
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

XII. Formal Paperwork Reduction Act Statement

A. Overview of Information Collection

    The EEOC has submitted to OMB a request for a three-year PRA 
approval of a revised EEO-1. The revised EEO-1 data collection has two 
components. The first component (Component 1) will collect information 
identical to that collected by the currently approved EEO-1. The second 
component (Component 2) will collect data on employees' W-2 pay and 
hours worked. Component 1 can be found at http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/upload/eeo1-2.pdf. An illustration of the data to 
be collected by both Components 1 and 2 can be found at http://10.5.0.211/employers/eeo1survey/2016_new_survey.cfm.
    For the 2016 reporting cycle, there will be no change to the EEO-1 
reporting requirement. All EEO-1 filers will continue to submit the 
data on race, ethnicity, sex, and job category that is currently 
collected by the EEO-1 report. The EEOC refers to this demographic and 
job category data as Component 1 data. Beginning with the 2017 
reporting cycle, the EEOC proposes to require EEO-1 filers with 100 or 
more employees to submit data on pay and hours worked (Component 2 
data) in addition to Component 1 data. However, federal contractor 
filers with 50 to 99 employees will only submit Component 1 data.
1. 2016 Overview of Information Collection--Component 1
    Collection Title: Employer Information Report (EEO-1).
    OMB Control Number: 3046-0007.
    Frequency of Report: Annual.
    Description of Affected Public: Private industry filers with 100 or 
more employees and federal government contractor filers with 50 or more 
employees.
    Number of Respondents: 67,146 firms filing 683,275 establishment 
reports.
    Reporting Hours: 1,055,471.
    Respondent Burden Hour Cost: $30,055,086.62.
    Federal Cost: $1,330,821.
    Number of Forms: 1.
    Form Number: EEOC Form 100.

[[Page 45496]]

2. 2017 and 2018 Overview of Information Collection--Components 1 and 2
    Collection Title: Employer Information Report (EEO-1).
    OMB Control Number: 3046-0007.
    Frequency of Report: Annual.
    Number of Forms: 1.
    Form Number: EEOC Form 100.
    Federal Cost: $318,000 for one-time costs and $1,621,300 \113\ for 
recurring staffing costs.
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    \113\ The addition of W-2 pay data to the EEO-1 is expected to 
increase EEOC's internal staffing costs by approximately $290,478. 
The annual federal cost figure of $1,621,300 includes both the 
increase in contract costs resulting from the addition of the pay 
data collection and the estimated internal staffing costs. It 
reflects an increase of more than $290,478 compared to the estimated 
federal costs provided in previously published Federal Register 
notices seeking PRA approval of this information collection because 
past estimates reflected the cost of the contract with the vendor 
whose services the EEOC procures to assist with administration and 
processing of the EEO-1 but did not include EEOC's internal staffing 
costs associated with processing the EEO-1.
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a. Component 1 (Demographic and Job Category Data)
    Description of Affected Public: In 2017 and 2018, contractor filers 
with 50 to 99 employees will submit only the demographic and job 
category data collected by Component 1.
    Number of Respondents: 6,260 firms filing 9,129 establishment 
reports.
    Reporting Hours: 59,166.
    Respondent Burden Hour Cost: $1,872,792.41.
b. Components 1 and 2 (Demographic and Job Category Data Plus W-2 and 
Hours Worked Data)
    Description of Affected Public: In 2017 and 2018, EEO-1 filers with 
100 or more employees will submit pay and hours worked data under 
Component 2 in addition to demographic and job category data under 
Component 1.
    Number of Respondents: 60,886 firms filing 674,146 establishment 
reports.
    Reporting Hours: 1,892,979.5.
    Respondent Burden Hour Cost: $53,546,359.08.

B. 30-Day Notice PRA Burden Statement

2016: Component 1
    Burden Statement: In 2016, all EEO-1 filers will submit Component 
1, which only includes the data collected by the currently approved 
EEO-1. No filer will be required to submit the Component 2 data during 
the 2016 reporting cycle. The estimated number of respondents required 
to submit the annual EEO-1 report is 67,146.\114\ This data collection 
is estimated to impose 1,055,471 burden hours in 2016 or 8 hours per 
filer for firm-level functions plus an additional one hour per report 
for establishment-level functions.\115\ The associated burden hour cost 
for the 2016 reporting cycle is $30,055,086.62.\116\ This estimate 
assumes electronic filing through the EEO-1 online portal either by 
data entry or data upload, and accounts for time and cost savings now 
associated with submission of the EEO-1 via data upload.
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    \114\ In 2014, 67,146 firms filed EEO-1 reports.
    \115\ This estimate calculates total time spent by firms 
assuming no data upload, then subtracts the estimated time saved by 
firms using data upload, as follows: 8 hours per firm for firm-level 
functions x 67,146 firms = 537,168 hours; 1 hour per report for 
establishment-level functions x 683,275 reports = 683,275 hours; 
537,168 + 683,275 = 1,220,443 total hours; 0.5 hours per report of 
data entry clerk time saved by data upload x 329,944 reports filed 
by data upload = 164,972; 1,220,443-164,972 = 1,055,471.
    \116\ To reach this estimate, the EEOC multiplied the hourly 
wage rates for each job by the estimated hours spent by each job in 
completing the EEO-1 to arrive at a per-firm cost for firm-level 
functions of $268.82 and a per-report cost for establishment-level 
functions of approximately $20.88 (rounded). The total burden hour 
cost for firm-level functions is $18,050,187.7 and the total burden 
hour cost for establishment-level functions is $14,263,365.6. Firms 
using data upload are estimated to save $2,258,466.68 (data entry 
clerk hourly wage rate of $13.69 x 0.5 hours x 329,944 reports filed 
by data upload). Total firm-level burden hour cost of $18,050,187.7 
+ total establishment-level burden hour cost of $14,263,365.6-cost 
savings from data upload of $2,258,466.68 = a total annual burden 
hour cost of $30,055,086.62.
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2017 and 2018: Components 1 and 2
    With respect to the EEO-1 reporting cycles for 2017 and 2018, this 
Notice will discuss the burden estimates associated with two distinct 
groups of filers. The first group consists of contractor filers with 50 
to 99 employees. This group of filers will continue to submit only the 
Component 1 data, just as they have done in previous years. The second 
group of filers includes all EEO-1 filers with 100 or more employees, 
whether private industry or contractor filers. This larger group will 
continue to submit Component 1 data as they have always done, but will 
also submit the newly-added W-2 and hours-worked data of Component 2.
    Burden Statement--Component 1 Only: Starting in 2017, the estimated 
number of annual respondents who are contractor filers with 50 to 99 
employees is 6,260.\117\ Again, this calculation assumes 8 hours per 
filer for firm-level functions plus an additional one hour per 
individual report for report-level functions. The burden on these 
contractor filers is estimated as follows:
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    \117\ Of the 67,146 firms that filed EEO-1 reports in 2014, 
6,260 were federal contractor filers with fewer than 100 employees.
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     Annual Burden Calculation: The estimated total annual 
burden hours required to complete Component 1 of the EEO-1 data 
collection in 2017 and 2018 is 59,166,\118\ with an associated total 
annual burden hour cost of $1,872,792.41.\119\
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    \118\ This estimate calculates total time spent by firms 
assuming no data upload, then subtracts the estimated time saved by 
firms using data upload, as follows: 8 hours per firm for firm-level 
functions x 6,260 firms = 50,080 hours; 1 hour per report for 
establishment-level functions x 9,129 reports = 9,129 hours; 50,080 
+ 9,129 = 59,209 total hours; 0.5 hours per report of data entry 
clerk time saved by data upload x 86 reports filed by data upload = 
43; 59,209-43 = 59,166.
    \119\ To reach this estimate, the EEOC multiplied the adjusted 
hourly rates for each job by the estimated hours spent by each job 
in completing the report to arrive at a per-firm cost for firm-level 
functions of $268.82 and a per-report cost for establishment-level 
functions of approximately $20.88 (rounded). The burden hour cost 
for firm-level functions is $1,682,813.2 and the burden hour cost 
for establishment-level functions is $190,567.875. Firms using data 
upload are estimated to save $588.67 (data entry clerk hourly wage 
rate of $13.69 x 0.5 hours x 86 reports filed by data upload). Total 
firm-level burden hour cost of $1,682,813.2 + total establishment-
level burden hour cost of $190,567.875-cost savings from data upload 
of $588.67 = a total annual burden hour cost of $1,872,792.41.
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    Burden Statement--Components 1 and 2: Starting in 2017, the 
estimated number of annual respondents that will submit Components 1 
and 2 is 60,886 private industry and contractor filers. Filers required 
to complete both Components 1 and 2 are estimated annually to incur a 
total of 15.2 hours per filer for firm-level functions plus an 
additional 1.9 hours per individual report for establishment-level 
functions. The estimated burden is based on electronic filing.
    The burden imposed on all private industry employer filers and 
contractor filers with 100 or more employees as a result of the 
proposed collection of Component 1 and 2 data is estimated as follows:
     Annual Burden Calculation: The estimated total annual 
burden hours needed for all filers required to report Components 1 and 
2 data is 1,892,979.5 hours,\120\ with an associated total annual 
burden hour cost of $53,546,359.08.\121\ The EEOC estimates

[[Page 45497]]

that for these filers submitting both Component 1 and 2 data in 2017 
and 2018, the addition of pay data will increase the estimated annual 
burden hour costs by a total of $25,364,064.80 or an average of $416.58 
per EEO-1 filer each year. This burden estimate includes reading 
instructions and collecting, merging, validating, and reporting the 
data electronically.
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    \120\ This estimate calculates total time spent by firms 
assuming no data upload, then subtracts the estimated time saved by 
firms using data upload, as follows: 15.2 hours per firm for firm-
level functions x 60,886 firms = 925,467.2 hours; 1.9 hours per 
report for establishment-level functions x 674,146 reports = 
1,280,877.4 hours; 925,467.2 + 1,280,877.4 = 2,206,344.6 total 
hours; 0.95 hours per report of data entry clerk time saved by data 
upload x 329,858 reports filed by data upload = 313,365.1; 
2,206,344.6-313,365.1 = 1,892,979.5.
    \121\ To reach this estimate, the EEOC multiplied the adjusted 
hourly rates for each job by the estimated hours spent by each job 
in completing the report to arrive at a per-firm cost for firm-level 
functions of approximately $510.76 and a per-report cost for 
establishment-level functions of approximately $39.66 (these figures 
are rounded). The burden hour cost for firm-level functions is 
$31,098,011.6 and the burden hour cost for establishment-level 
functions is $26,738,315.7. Firms using data upload are estimated to 
save $4,289,968.22 (data entry clerk hourly wage rate of $13.69 x 
0.95 hours x 329,858 reports filed by data upload). Total firm-level 
burden hour cost of $31,098,011.6 + total establishment-level burden 
hour cost of $26,738,315.7-cost savings from data upload of 
$4,289,968.22 = a total annual burden hour cost of $53,546,359.08.
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     One-Time Implementation Burden: The 60-Day Notice 
estimated the one-time implementation burden hour cost associated with 
submitting the information required by Component 2 of the revised EEO-1 
Report to be $23,000,295. This was based on the one-time cost for 
developing queries related to Component 2 in an existing HRIS, which 
was estimated to take 8 hours per filer at a wage rate of $47.22 per 
hour.
    Employers filing public comments stated that bridging pay and HRIS 
systems, or purchasing software updates from vendors, would be 
extremely expensive. Some of these employers estimated the one-time 
implementation cost of bridging HRIS and payroll records to report 
Component 2 data estimated costs could range from $5,000 per firm to 
$20,000, $30,000, or $40,000 per firm. Although the estimates did not 
provide details explaining how they were calculated, the EEOC has 
considered this feedback and increased the one-time implementation 
burden. It has done so by reflecting that specialized computer software 
experts with a higher wage rate will be required to do the work 
necessary to implement the one-time changes required for this proposal.
    Using an hourly wage rate for a computer programmer of $55.81, the 
EEOC now estimates one-time burden hour cost of $27,184,381.28.\122\
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    \122\ This estimate is calculated as follows: 8 hours per 
respondent x 60,886 employers = 487,088 x $55.81 per hour = 
$27,184,381.28. The higher one-time implementation burden estimate 
in this Notice as compared to the one-time implementation burden 
estimate in the 60-Day Notice is due to the higher wage rate for the 
computer programmer, multiplied by 1.46, which is the employer 
contribution for ``management, professional, related.'' U.S. Dept. 
of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: 
Computer Programmers, http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-programmers.htm; see also U.S. Dept. 
of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee 
Compensation--Dec. 2015 (Mar. 2016), http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_03102016.htm (computing the rate of 
employer contribution by dividing total compensation by total 
salary).

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    Dated: July 11, 2016.

    For the Commission.
Jenny R. Yang,
Chair.
[FR Doc. 2016-16692 Filed 7-13-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P