Dive Brief:

• In response to employer requests, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has extended the 2018 filing deadline for EEO-1 reports to June 1.
• The original deadline was March 31 and, according to an EEOC spokesperson, the commission had received reports from approximately 84% of employers in its system by April 24. That's an improvement over previous years, the agency says, but there was an influx of requests for technical assistance in a short period of time, which slowed agency response time. "As a result, we received a number of inquiries from filers requesting additional time to file their 2017 EEO-1 Reports," the commission said in an email to HR Dive. "In response to these requests we made the decision on Friday, April 20th to extend the filling deadline for the EEO-1 Survey to Friday, June 1, 2018."
• The commission updated its website April 20 and informed all filers in its system of the new deadline, it said. And to address the backlog of emails, it has added additional full-time staff to the effort.

Dive Insight:

The EEO-1 had a tumultuous year, with EEOC adopting new compensation reporting requirements during the Obama administration, only to have the new White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) block them Aug. 29, 2017, just ahead of the snapshot window for the report. The move was a huge reprieve for employers, but they're not completely out of the woods just yet.

OMB didn't kill the requirement permanently and an EEOC commissioner said in September 2017 that the agency plans to replace it in some way, but that there is no timeline for doing so. It will likely depend on the still-unconfirmed individuals nominated to fill the commission's two vacant seats. In their September confirmation hearing, they both voiced support for the compensation data collection and promised to rework and replace the requirements in a timely manner.

Since then, two employee advocacy groups have sued OMB, alleging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) violations around its decision. It has not responded to repeated FOIA requests regarding its “sudden and largely unexplained” decision to block the requirements, they say.

Several experts have suggested that employers may want to use this time to cull pay data anyway. First, you need to know whether you can pull that data if the requirements come back, they said. In addition, having that info sets you up to do an internal pay audit, helping you head off any potential pay discrimination claims by making any necessary adjustments.