End of an era? EEOC votes to scrap 60-year-old demographic reporting requirements

On July 21, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) voted to approve a draft notice of proposed rulemaking that would rescind the EEO-1 report and related demographic data reporting requirements, ending an obligation that has been a fixture of federal employment compliance for six decades. While the proposal must still navigate the notice-and-comment process before becoming final, the commission’s vote marks a decisive step toward eliminating one of employers’ longest-standing federal reporting obligations. Employers and employment counsel should understand what this means (and what it doesn’t mean) for their compliance posture going forward.

What is the EEO-1 report, and why did it exist?

Since 1966, the EEOC has required private-sector employers with 100 or more employees, as well as federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting certain criteria, to submit an annual form known as the EEO-1. The report requires employers to categorize their workforce by job category, race, ethnicity, and sex, providing a demographic snapshot of their employment composition. Related reports, such as the EEO-2 through EEO-5, impose similar requirements on apprenticeship programs, unions, state and local governments, and public school systems.