Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Approves the Revisions of EEO-1 Form

Reacting to "changing events, a shift in demographics, improvements in technology and changes in society," that have conspired to marginalize the report in the 29 years since its last revision, on November 16, 2005, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) approved changes to the Employer Information Report," commonly known as the EEO-1 Report. The changes were approved by a 3-1 vote along party lines during a commission meeting at agency’s Washington D.C. headquarters. "The proposal approved today modernizes the EEO-1 Report so that it continues to be relevant and have value, while minimizing the reporting burden," said EEOC Chair Cari M. Dominguez.

The EEO-1 Report is a government form requiring certain employers¹ to provide a count of their employees by job category, ethnicity, race, and gender. The completed form is submitted to both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

The final proposed changes to the EEO-1 Report's race and ethnic categories include:

*Adding new categories:

• "Two or more races not Hispanic or Latino";
• "Asians not Hispanic or Latino"; and
• "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander not Hispanic or Latino"

*Separating "Asians" from "Pacific Islanders";

Extending EEO-1 race and ethnicity data collection to the State of Hawaii; and

*Strongly endorsing self-identification of race and ethnic categories over visual identification by employers.

The final proposed changes to the EEO-1 Report's job categories include:

*Dividing "Officials and Managers" into two levels based on responsibility and influence within the organization:

• "Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers" and
• "First/Mid-Level Official and Managers"; and

*Moving non-managerial business and financial occupations from the "Officials and Managers" category to the "Professionals" category.

EEOC chose to include the "two or more races" category on the form although it had been widely criticized as unrealistic during the preliminary round of comments. Business groups said that the category would "provide ambiguous and vague data as opposed to the clear and crisp data found when employees simply choose race/ethnicity based on the race/ethnicity with which they primarily identify." Civil rights organizations also opposed the "two or more races" category, and they urged more detailed reporting in separate racial combinations.

The agency rejected this opposition. A central factor in this decision is that it will allow OFCCP to use EEO-1 data, the EEOC said in the draft notice approved by the commission: "Adoption of the ‘two or more races’ category will allow OFCCP to count this new category as ‘minority’ and to continue using the current methodology with minor adjustments."

Business groups did support some changes in the original proposal, including subdividing the manager classification. The two new levels are executive/senior-level or first/mid-level officials and managers. The senior-level classification will assist EEOC in analyzing whether glass ceilings are preventing the advancement of minorities and women within organizations.

The requirement that employers report ethnic data, but not racial data, for Hispanic or Latino employees was the subject of strenuous opposition from civil rights groups and drew a strong dissent from Commissioner Stuart Ishimaru. However, the strong shift to self-identification as the preferred method of identification, rather than visual identification except when an individual declines to self-identify, should serve to insulate employers from most liability concerns surrounding this issue.

OMB will accept comments on the revised EEO-1 form for 30 days. The 30 day period will commence on the date of publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register. Comments may be sent to Carolyn Lovett, OMB policy analyst, at Carolyn_L._Lovett@omb.eop.gov. Comments also should be sent to Stephen Llewellyn, acting executive officer, executive secretariat, EEOC, 10th Floor, 1801 L St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20507. If OMB approves the new form, it will take effect with the EEO-1 reports due in 2007.