[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 78 (Monday, April 26, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22048-22050]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-08549]


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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice of Submission 
for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Notice of information collection.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gives notice of its intent to 
submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for 
renewal of the information collection described below.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be submitted on or before 
June 25, 2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods--
please use only one method:
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions online for submitting comments.
    Mail: Comments may be submitted by mail to Rachel See, Acting 
Executive Officer, Executive Secretariat, Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission, 131 M Street NE, Washington, DC 20507.
    Fax: Comments totaling six or fewer pages may be sent by fax 
machine to (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 (TTD). 
(These are not toll-free telephone numbers.)
    Instructions: All comments received will be posted without change 
to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information you 
provide, except as noted below. However, EEOC reserves the right to 
refrain from posting 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.
    Although copies of comments received are usually also available for 
review at the Commission's library, given the EEOC's current 100% 
telework status due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public 
health emergency, the Commission's library is closed until further 
notice. Once the Commission's library is re-opened, copies of comments 
received in

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response to this notice will be made available for viewing by 
appointment only at 131 M Street NE, Suite 4NW08R, Washington, DC 
20507, between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Oram, Assistant Legal 
Counsel, at (202) 921-2665 or [email protected], or Savannah 
Marion Felton, Senior Attorney, at (202) 921-2671 or 
[email protected]. 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 1-800-669-6820 (TTY).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Introduction

    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) 
gives notice of its intent to submit the recordkeeping requirements 
contained in the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures 
(UGESP or Uniform Guidelines) \1\ to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for a three-year extension without change under the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA).
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    \1\ 29 CFR, part 1607, 41 CFR part 60-3, 28 CFR part 50, 5 CFR 
part 300.
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Request for Comments

    Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 
35, and OMB regulation 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), the EEOC invites public 
comments that will enable the agency to:
    (1) Evaluate whether the collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (2) Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of 
the collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    (3) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and
    (4) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, to be collected; e.g., 
permitting electronic submission of responses.

Overview of Current 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: 957,005.
    Responses: \2\ 957,005.
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    \2\ In calculating burden, data from multiple sources are used. 
Some of these sources do not allow us to identify only those 
employers who are covered by Title VII (employers with 15 or more 
employees).
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    Recordkeeping Hours: 16,578,127 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.
    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. However, for the purposes of burden calculation, data for all 
employers are counted.\2\ The number of employers with 15 or more 
employees is estimated at 957,005 which combines estimates from private 
employment,\3\ the public sector,\4\ and referral unions.\5\ Employers 
with 15 or more employees represent approximately 15.3% of all 
employers in the U.S. and employ about 87.7% of all employees in the 
U.S.\6\
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    \3\ Source of original data: 2017 Economic Census. (https://www.census.gov/content/census/en/data/datasets/2017/econ/susb/2017-susb.html). Local Downloadable CSV data. Select U.S. & states, 6 
digit NAICS. The original number of employers was adjusted to only 
include those with 15 or more employees.
    \4\ Source of original data: 2017 Census of Governments: 
Employment. Individual Government Data File (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/econ/apes/annual-apes.html/), Local Downloadable 
Data zip file ``individual files''. The original number of 
government entities was adjusted to only include those with 15 or 
more employees.
    \5\ EEO-3 Reports filed by referral unions in 2018 with EEOC.
    \6\ Source of original data: 2017 Economic Census. (https://www.census.gov/content/census/en/data/datasets/2017/econ/susb/2017-susb.html). Local Downloadable CSV data. Select U.S. & states, 6 
digit NAICS;2017 Census of Governments (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/econ/apes/annual-apes).
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    This burden assessment is based on an estimate of the number of job 
applications submitted to all 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 
1,989,375,182, based on an average of approximately 29 applications \7\ 
for every hire and a Bureau of Labor Statistics data estimate of 
68,594,000 annual hires.\8\ This figure also includes 149,182 
applicants for union membership reported on the EEO-3 form for 2018.
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    \7\ The average number of applications received per job opening 
in 2018, according to the private career advice website Zety. 
(https://zety.com/blog/hr-statistics).
    \8\ Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover 
Survey, 2018 annual level data (Not seasonally adjusted), (http://www.bls.gov/jlt/data.htm) is the source of the original data. The 
BLS figure includes new hires in both the public and the private 
sectors across all employer sizes.
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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); the employer may need to transfer 
information received to a database either manually or electronically 
(although we believe it likely that many employers utilize HR software 
that handles employment applications as well as the rest of the 
employers HR needs); 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

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record, and assuming a total of 1,989,375,182 paper and electronic 
applications per year (as calculated above), the resulting UGESP burden 
hours would be 16,578,127. Based on a wage rate of $17.44 \9\ per hour 
for the individuals entering the data, the collection and storage of 
applicant demographic data would come to approximately $289,122,526 per 
year. 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.
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    \9\ Based on the 10th percentile hourly wage for Human Resources 
Specialist in 2018 (https://www.bls.gov/oes/2018/may/oes131071.htm). 
The 10th percentile is slightly lower than the average salary for an 
entry-level Human Resources Specialist (https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Entry-Level-Human-Resources-Specialist-Salary).
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    While the burden hours and costs for the UGESP recordkeeping 
requirement seem very large, the average burden per employer is 
relatively small. We estimate that UGESP applies to 957,005 employers, 
which is about 15.3% of all employers in the U.S, and who employ about 
87.7% of all employees in the U.S. (86.5% of private employees and 
95.9% of government employees).\10\ Therefore, the estimated cost per 
covered employer is about $263.\11\ Additionally, 35.0% of employees 
work for firms with at least 5,000 employees,\12\ and it is likely the 
burden of entry for these firms is transferred to the applicants via 
use of electronic application systems. UGESP also allows for simplified 
recordkeeping for employers with more than 15 but less than 100 
employees.\13\
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    \10\ Source for private employees: 2017 Economic Census. 
(https://www.census.gov/content/census/en/data/datasets/2017/econ/susb/2017-susb.html). Local Downloadable CSV data. Select U.S. & 
states, 6 digit NAICS. Source for public employees: 2017 Census of 
Governments (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/econ/apes/annual-apes).
    \11\ This assumes that the new hires in 2018 were distributed 
equally across firm and agency sizes. In 2018, 64,286,000 new hires 
were in the private sector 86.5% of which would be 55,575,000 new 
hires estimated for firms with at least 15 employees. Similarly, 
4,310,000 new hires were in the public sector. 95.9% of which would 
be 4,133,000 new hires into governments with at least 15 employees. 
This totals approximately 59,708,000 new hires in Title VII 
locations. The remainder of the burden hour calculations remain the 
same.
    \12\ Source for private employees: 2017 Economic Census. 
(https://www.census.gov/content/census/en/data/datasets/2017/econ/susb/2017-susb.html).
    \13\ 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 20, 2021.
Charlotte A. Burrows,
Chair.
[FR Doc. 2021-08549 Filed 4-23-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6570-01-P