[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 83 (Monday, April 30, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18839-18841]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-08993]


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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request

AGENCY: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Final notice of information collection--Uniform Guidelines on 
Employee Selection Procedures--extension without change.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gives notice that it has 
submitted the information described below to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for a three-year extension without change.

DATES: Written comments on this final notice must be submitted on or 
before May 30, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Comments on this final notice must be submitted to Joseph B. 
Nye, Policy Analyst, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs,

[[Page 18840]]

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 website for submitting comments. In addition, 
the EEOC's Executive Secretariat will accept comments in hard copy by 
delivery by COB on May 30, 2018. Hard copy comments should be sent to 
Bernadette Wilson, Executive Officer, Executive Secretariat, Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission, 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 website, 
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: Kathleen Oram, Assistant Legal 
Counsel, at (202) 663-4681 (voice) or (202) 663-7026 (TDD).

Overview of This Information Collection

    Collection Title: Recordkeeping Requirements of the Uniform 
Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, 29 CFR part 1607, 41 CFR 
part 60-3, 28 CFR part 50, 5 CFR part 300.
    OMB Number: 3046-0017.
    Type of Respondent: Businesses or other institutions; Federal 
Government; State or local governments and farms.
    North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code: 
Multiple.
    Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC): Multiple.
    Description of Affected Public: Any employer, Government 
contractor, labor organization, or employment agency covered by the 
Federal equal employment opportunity laws.
    Respondents: 961,709.
    Responses: 2 961,709.
    Recordkeeping Hours: 7,825,132 per year.
    Number of Forms: None.
    Form Number: None.
    Frequency of Report: None.
    Abstract: The Uniform Guidelines provide fundamental guidance for 
all Title VII-covered employers about the use of employment selection 
procedures. The records addressed by UGESP are used by respondents to 
ensure that they are complying with Title VII and Executive Order 
11246; by the Federal agencies that enforce Title VII and Executive 
Order 11246 to investigate, conciliate, and litigate charges of 
employment discrimination; and by complainants to establish violations 
of Federal equal employment opportunity laws. While there is no data 
available to quantify these benefits, the collection of accurate 
applicant flow data enhances each employer's ability to address any 
deficiencies in recruitment and selection processes, including 
detecting barriers to equal employment opportunity.
    On February 22, 2018, the Commission published a 60-Day Notice 
informing the public of its intent to request an extension without 
change of the information collection requirements from the Office of 
Management and Budget. 83 FR 7720 (February 22, 2018). No comments were 
received.
    Burden Statement: There are no reporting requirements associated 
with UGESP. The burden being estimated is the cost of collecting and 
storing a job applicant's gender, race, and ethnicity data.
    The only paperwork burden derives from this recordkeeping. Only 
employers covered under Title VII and Executive Order 11246 are subject 
to UGESP. For the purposes of burden calculation, employers with 15 or 
more employees are counted. The number of such employers is estimated 
at 961,709 which combines estimates from private employment,\1\ the 
public sector,\2\ colleges and universities,\3\ and referral unions.\4\
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    \1\ Source: U.S. Small Business Administration: Statistics of 
U.S. Business, Release Date 1/2017. (https://www.sba.gov/advocacy/firm-size-data). Select U.S. Static Data, U.S. Data.
    \2\ Source of original data: 2012 Census of Governments: 
Employment. Individual Government Data File (https://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/12ind_all_tabs.xls), Local Downloadable 
Data zip file 12ind_all_tabs.xls. The number of government entities 
was adjusted to only include those with 15 or more employees.
    \3\ Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for 
Education Statistics, IPEDS, Fall 2015. Number and percentage 
distribution of Title IV institutions, by control of institution, 
level of institution, and region: United States and other U.S. 
jurisdictions, academic year 2015-1 (https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016111.pdf).
    \4\ EEO-3 Reports filed by referral unions in 2016 with EEOC.
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    This burden assessment is based on an estimate of the number of job 
applications submitted to all Title VII-covered employers in one year, 
including paper-based and electronic applications. The total number of 
job applications submitted every year to covered employers is estimated 
to be 1,878,031,768, based on a National Organizations Survey \5\ 
average of approximately 35 applications \6\ for every hire and a 
Bureau of Labor Statistics data estimate of 62,719,000 annual hires.\7\ 
This figure also includes 146,506 applicants for union membership 
reported on the EEO-3 form for 2016.
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    \5\ The National Organizations Survey is a survey of business 
organizations across the United States in which the unit of analysis 
is the actual workplace (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/04074).
    \6\ The number of applications provided by NOS is 35.225 and 
therefore calculations will not result in the same total amount due 
to rounding.
    \7\ Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover 
Survey, 2016 annual level data (Not seasonally adjusted), is the 
source of the original data (http://www.bls.gov/jlt/data.htm). 
Select ``Multi-screen Data Search'', then ``Total Non-farm'' and 
click ``Next Form (after each of the following selections choose 
``next form'' as well) Choose ``Total US'', then ``Hires'', then 
``Level-In Thousands'', then ``Not Seasonally Adjusted''. Select 
``Retrieve Data''. Add all monthly numbers for the year 2016. Please 
remember that counts are in thousands. The BLS figure (62,719,000) 
has been adjusted to only include hires by firms with 15 or more 
employees.
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    The employer burden associated with collecting and storing 
applicant demographic data is based on the following assumptions: 
Applicants would need to be asked to provide three pieces of 
information--sex, race/ethnicity, and an identification number (a total 
of approximately 13 keystrokes);

[[Page 18841]]

the employer would need to transfer information received to a database 
either manually or electronically; and the employer would need to store 
the 13 characters of information for each applicant. Recordkeeping 
costs and burden are assumed to be the time cost associated with 
entering 13 keystrokes.
    Assuming that the required recordkeeping takes 30 seconds per 
record, and assuming a total of 1,878,031,768 paper and electronic 
applications per year (as calculated above), the resulting UGESP burden 
hours would be 7,825,132. Based on a wage rate of $15.21 per hour for 
the individuals entering the data, the collection and storage of 
applicant demographic data would come to approximately $119,020,258 per 
year for Title VII-covered employers. We expect that the foregoing 
assumptions are over-inclusive, because many employers have electronic 
job application processes that should be able to capture applicant flow 
data automatically.
    However, the average burden per employer is relatively small. As 
stated above, we estimate that UGESP applies to 961,709 employers. 
Therefore, the cost per covered employer is less than $124 each 
($119,020,258 divided by 961,709 is equal to $123.76). Additionally, 
UGESP allows for simplified recordkeeping for employers with more than 
15 but less than 100 employees.\8\
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    \8\ See 29 CFR 1607.15A(1): Simplified recordkeeping for users 
with less than 100 employees. In order to minimize recordkeeping 
burdens on employers who employ one hundred (100) or fewer 
employees, and other users not required to file EEO-1, et seq., 
reports, such users may satisfy the requirements of this section 15 
if they maintain and have available records showing, for each year: 
(a) The number of persons hired, promoted, and terminated for each 
job, by sex, and where appropriate by race and national origin; (b) 
The number of applicants for hire and promotion by sex and where 
appropriate by race and national origin; and (c) The selection 
procedures utilized (either standardized or not standardized).

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    For the Commission.

    Dated: April 18, 2018.
Victoria A. Lipnic,
Acting Chair.
[FR Doc. 2018-08993 Filed 4-27-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6570-01-P