EEOC Announces Analysis of EEO-1 Component 2 Pay Data Collection

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that the Commission has voted unanimously to fund a statistical study with the National Acad­emies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) to conduct an independent assessment of the quality and utility of the EEO-1 Component 2 data for FY 2017 and 2018, which was collected last year as the result of a court order.

The Information Quality Act requires the EEOC to assess and assure the quality and utility of data collected by the agency. In order to meet the requirements of the Information Quality Act, the assessment by CNSTAT will examine the fitness for use of the data, including the utility of pay bands in measuring pay disparities and potential statistical and analytically appropriate uses of the data.  The CNSTAT assessment will also inform the EEOC’s approach to future data collections. 

“I am pleased that CNSTAT will be conducting a thorough review of the EEO-1 Component 2 data collection,” said EEOC Chair Janet Dhillon. “Not only will this independent assessment answer critical questions about the data that was collected, but will give the Commission valuable information as we consider the future of pay data collection.”

EEOC Chief Data Officer Chris Haffer said, “The expedited timeline imposed by the court prevented the EEOC from implementing standard data collection quality assurance and quality control methods. This study will allow the EEOC to get an independent assessment of the quality and utility of the data.”

CNSTAT will independently lead the study and will assemble an expert panel to conduct the assessment. The panel members are subject matter experts and will be screened for potential conflicts of interest throughout the life of the committee. The panel will hold public meetings to collect input from stakeholders, including representatives of organizations or interest groups, hold closed internal meetings to allow the panel to deliberate and formulate recommendations for the EEOC, and produce a final re­port, which will be sent through the National Academies’ independent review process before being released publicly.

CNSTAT members include experts in statistical and computational methods, survey research, economic, social, and demographic measurement and other relevant fields, who serve pro bono for three-year terms. Over its 47-year history, CNSTAT has released more than 270 reports, the fruit of the interdisciplinary groups of experts who provide their services as consensus panel members, workshop participants and reviewers.

This is not the first time CNSTAT has looked at the issue of pay data for the Commission. CNSTAT reviewed methods for measuring and collecting pay information and issued a final report, “Collecting Compensation Data from Employers,” in 2012.

The current CNSTAT project began on July 1, 2020 and is anticipated to be completed by Dec.  31, 2021.

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employ­ment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov.  Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.