In his 2015 State of the Union speech, President Obama pressed Congress to “pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work.” Although the president’s plea for the passage of stronger pay discrimination laws is unlikely to sway the Republican-controlled House and Senate, the federal enforcement agencies have been working behind the scenes to bolster existing laws.
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And if you’re a federal contractor, part of the master plan involves collecting compensation data from employers like you.
Leslie Silverman, an attorney at the Washington, D.C., firm of Fortney & Scott, LLC, explains more for us today.
This past September, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) drew a great deal of attention and scrutiny with the introduction of its new plan to collect compensation data from federal contractors. But all the while, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been stealthily moving forward with its own plans to collect pay data as part of its annual EEO-1 Survey.
Lack of Access to Private Sector Wage Data Viewed as Problematic by Federal Agencies
Back in 2010, the White House established the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, bringing together professionals from the EEOC, the U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Labor (DOL), and the Office of Personal Management (OPM), to promote efficiency and efficacy in enforcement of existing pay discrimination laws.
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The task force identified the lack of access to private sector wage data as a major impediment and invited the EEOC and the OFCCP to identify ways to systematically collect private sector wage data that would be useful to enforcement without creating unnecessary burdens on employers.
The EEOC called on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review the methods for measuring and collecting pay information. In 2012, the NAS panel released the results of its 2-year study.
Panel Findings Reveal No “Clearly Articulated Vision” for Pay Data Collection or Usage
The panel found that the enforcement agencies had no "clearly articulated vision of how data on wages would be used in the conduct of these enforcement responsibilities" and found "no evidence of a clearly articulated plan for using the earnings data if collected.”
The NAS also pointed out specific concerns that would need to be resolved before the agencies could collect compensation data from employers and made a series of recommendations to assist the agencies with the process.
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EEOC Coordinating with Other Enforcement Agencies on Collecting and Using Employer Pay Data
The EEOC has been unusually tight-lipped since the study’s release, leaving many employers wondering if it has given up on collecting compensation data. Yet publicly available records indicate the agency has been quietly following the NAS study, including its recommendation that the EEOC coordinate with other enforcement agencies and collectively determine how employer pay data should be collected and used.
Tomorrow: More on exactly what the EEOC is up to in this area, what stage of the process they’re at, and when you can potentially expect to start turning over your compensation data to the feds.
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Great–more reporting obligations.