The past few weeks have seen a flow of new developments involving the recently reinstated EEO-1 pay data reporting obligations.  And Friday, May 3rd, was no exception.  At the same time EEOC was announcing its decision to collect pay data for 2017 as well as 2018, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was filing a Notice of Appeal of Judge Tanya S. Chutkan’s Order reinstating the pay data reporting obligation.

EEOC has, however, posted a notice on its website taking the position the Notice of Appeal does not impact employers’ EEO-1 pay data reporting requirement, stating the following:

On May 3, 2019, the Department of Justice filed a Notice of Appeal in National Women’s Law Center.  The filing of this Notice of Appeal does not stay the district court orders or alter EEO-1 filers’ obligations to submit Component 2 data. EEO-1 filers should begin preparing to submit Component 2 data as described above.

In addition to posting the updated notice on its website, EEOC also filed the first of its required status reports with the Court.  The first of Defendant EEOC’s Report of Steps to Implement the EEO-1 Component 2 Data Collection, filed on May 3, 2019, details, among other things, the initial steps it has taken to comply with the Court’s Order to collect Component 2 (pay data) of the EEO-1 report by September 30, 2019.

As of Friday, EEOC reported it has selected a third party vendor, NORC at the University of Chicago, to develop the reporting tool and detailed how it will work with NORC in the coming weeks.  As part of these efforts, EEOC indicated:

[i]n the next three weeks, the EEOC plans to oversee preparation and planning for the launch
of the NORC email and phone helpdesk to assist filers with questions and concerns about the
collection of Component 2 data for 2017 and 2018. The EEOC anticipates that the helpdesk will
launch sometime in the next three weeks.

EEOC also notified the Court that the long-awaited confirmation of EEOC Commissioner Janet Dhillon may occur as early as next week.  Her nomination has been pending since June 2017.  With Dhillon’s confirmation, EEOC would finally have a quorum with three confirmed Commissioners – Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic and Charlotte Burrows.  Though two vacant seats would still remain.

We will continue to monitor this matter and will provide any updates as they become available.