[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 126 (Tuesday, July 6, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35505-35506]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-14350]


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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 notice must be submitted on or before 
August 5, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent within 30 days of 
publication of this final notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function.

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).

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: 957,005.
    Responses \1\ : 957,005.
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    \1\ The number of respondents is equal to the number of 
responses (i.e., one response per person).
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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 on Employee Selection Procedures 
(UGESP) 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. 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 April 26, 2021, 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, and providing its PRA burden analysis for UGESP. 
86 FR 22049 (April 26, 2021). The Commission received one comment in 
response to the 60-Day Notice. This comment notes that UGESP, since its 
1978 adoption, has used the verb ``should'' to characterize employers' 
duties to collect and maintain information and to analyze the validity 
of employment selection procedures or tests. The comment appears to be 
arguing against construing ``should'' to mean ``must'' by commenting 
that, if EEOC in fact did construe ``should'' to mean ``must,'' then 
EEOC's PRA burden calculation in the 60-Day Notice would be too low to 
cover all the activities enumerated in UGESP.
    EEOC does not express a view here on the meaning of the term 
``should'' in UGESP except to refer readers to the subsection of 
UGESP's Definitions section that explains how to interpret the word 
```should' as used in these guidelines.'' See 29 CFR 1607.16 S. 
(Definitions. Should).
    From the PRA perspective, EEOC correctly construes the PRA burden 
analysis requirements. For purposes of calculating the PRA burden of a 
federal ``collection of information'' like UGESP, the phrase 
``collection of information'' focuses on ``the act of collecting . . . 
information.'' 5 CFR 1620.3(c). The PRA analysis of burden, in turn, 
refers to a calculation of the time and cost used by the regulated 
entity to engage in the act of collecting and maintaining the specified 
information. Id. at 1620.3(b)(1). EEOC's 60-Day PRA

[[Page 35506]]

burden analysis correctly and appropriately accounts for the burden on 
regulated entities of collecting and maintaining applicant flow data 
under UGESP.
    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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    \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).
    \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 
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 be16,578,127. 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: June 30, 2021.
Charlotte A. Burrows,
Chair.
[FR Doc. 2021-14350 Filed 7-2-21; 8:45 am]
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