Breaking: Employers Can Rest Easy on EEO-1 Reports and the Obama DOL Salary Rule

Two breaking news items this week. First, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) announced this week that it was removing a requirement that EEO-1 reports contain employee pay data. The now-defunct Obama-era requirement announced in 2016 would have required employers to disclose compensation information to the EEOC regarding all employees, including executives – which many employers consider to be highly confidential. The OMB also announced that the EEO-1 reporting deadline has been extended from September 30 of this year to March 31, 2018.

As we blogged about here, the previously approved EEO-1 report required employers to disclose compensation data along with the information they’ve provided for years: race, ethnicity, and gender by job category. Many employers were concerned about the burden of collecting such data for all employees, and disclosing it to the government for fear that the information would fall into the hands of competitors. The OMB’s decision to remove compensation as a reportable category resolves those concerns.

Second, as we wrote about here, a federal court in Texas struck down the Obama-era salary rule for “white collar” exemptions that was set to double the minimum salary for white collar exempt employees. Though employee-advocacy groups and unions may try to appeal the decision, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) had already announced it would not enforce the rule. So any appeal would effectively be moot. Employers should stay the course. Employers can also weigh in on whether the DOL should make any changes to the white collar exemptions. The DOL is soliciting comments through September 25, 2017. See here for more information.