The annual EEO-1 report, due each September and covering 50 million workers, has finally been revised. Your first revised report will be due this fall, but you need to be collecting data in the new way right now. This article…plus a special BLR audio conference on Feb. 20… will help you do it right.
It only took Uncle Sam 40 years, but he finally did it … revised the annual EEO-1 report.
This report to the federal government is due by September 30 each year from every company with more than 100 employees, or with more than 50 employees and $50,000 in federal contracts. Those two categories encompass a huge slice of the American workforce … more than 40,000 companies, in nearly a quarter-million locations, employing 50 million workers.
Part of the government’s equal employment opportunity effort, EEO-1 asks employers to report the demographic composition of their workforce. Workers are slotted into job categories, with their numbers then counted by racial and ethnic identity.
The data charts not only the upward movement of women and minorities as they climb the job ladder but also the not-so-upward movement in some companies and industries. The latter information becomes the basis for enforcement efforts aimed at bringing equality to every workplace.
Officially called the “Employer Information Report,” EEO-1 has been around in its current form since 1966. The new revisions reflect demographic realities related to race and ethnicity that didn’t exist four decades ago.
Employers are not required to reclassify employees using the new racial and ethnic categories until the 2008 reports are due. However, the EEOC is encouraging employers to take this step voluntarily in 2007. Since the numbers you put down next September will be a snapshot of your workforce as it currently is, you need to collect information in a new way right now, and from now on. Here’s an overview of the changes made to the report:
- Added a new category titled “Two or more races, not Hispanic or Latino”;
- Deleted the “Asian and Pacific Islanders” category;
- Added a new category titled “Asians, not Hispanic or Latino”;
- Added a new category titled “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, not Hispanic or Latino”;
- Extended EEO-1 data collection by race and ethnicity to the State of Hawaii; and
- Added a strong endorsement of employee self-identification of race and ethnicity, as opposed to visual identification by employers.
That last point means that if you use a form for employees to self-identify, it needs to be revised to match the new categories.
Seemingly “Stuck” in Middle Management
The former job categorization scheme classified workers simply as either management or nonmanagement. The new EEO-1 report:
- Divides “Officials and Managers” into two levels: “Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers” and “First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers.”
- Moves nonmanagerial business and financial occupations from the “Officials and Managers” category to the “Professionals” category.
These changes were made, says EEOC, because they’ll help identify groups “stuck” in middle-management and seemingly unable to reach the highest levels of their organizations. Evidence that this happens comes from recent EEO-1 data, showing minorities rising fast in management but still underrepresented at the tops of companies.
To help employers gain a full picture of the new report and all its ramifications, BLR will hold a special 90-minute audio briefing titled 2007 EEO-1 Reporting Rules Audio Conference. The date is February 20. Time is 1:30 – 3 p.m. Eastern (please adjust the time for your time zone).
Presenters include two nationally known attorneys from the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP. George S. Howard has been featured in every edition of The Best Lawyers in America since 1993. Senior Associate Julia E. Judish is from Pillsbury’s Washington, D.C., office and regularly defends claims before the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, as well as federal and state courts and other agencies.
Like all BLR audio conferences, one fee entitles you to include as participants all the staff you can gather around a phone. A full question and answer period follows the formal presentations. Questions can be phoned in or e-mailed.
Click below for full details or to register. And if you can’t attend, pre-order a CD of the conference. It will be shipped shortly after the session has ended.
To register for the 2007 EEO-1 Reporting Rules Audio Conference or to purchase a recording of the conference in the event you can not attend, please click here.