EEOC IMPLEMENTS FINAL REVISIONS TO EEO-1 REPORT

First Major Change to Employer Survey in 40 Years

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the implementation of final revisions to the Employer Information Report, also known as the EEO-1 Report, as recently voted on and approved by the Commission.  The implementation of the final revisions marks the first major change to the employer survey in four decades.

Many employers are required to submit annually the EEO-1 Report, which provides the federal government with workforce profiles by ethnicity, race and gender, divided into job categories.  The new format will be required for the first time for the 2007 survey, which is due by September 30, 2007.  Employers are expected to use the current format for their 2006 EEO-1 submissions. 

"The new EEO-1 Report recognizes the shifting demographics of today's workplace," said Commission Chair Cari M. Dominguez, noting that this was the first major revision of the EEO-1 report since 1966.  "The revised report will also better enable the Commission to accurately monitor the advancement of women and people of color into the upper ranks of management."

The EEOC's revisions incorporate some of the recommendations received by the Commission during the past two and one-half years.  In June 2003, the Commission published a notice of proposed revisions to the EEO-1 Report in the Federal Register, received and considered public comments, and then held a public hearing in October 2003.  As required under the Paperwork Reduction Act (70 FR 71294), a second Federal Register notice was published on November 28, 2005, for a 30-day comment period.  The new report format, Instructions, and explanation can be found on the EEOC's web site at www.eeoc.gov/eeo1/index.html.

During the revision process, the Commission consulted with a broad range of stakeholders and held extensive discussions with other federal agencies – including the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).  The new EEO-1 Report's race and ethnic categories include:

 
• Adding a new category titled "Two or more races, not Hispanic or Latino";
• Deleting the "Asian and Pacific Islanders" category;
• Adding a new category titled "Asians, not Hispanic or Latino";
• Adding a new category titled "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, not Hispanic or Latino";
• Extending the EEO-1 data collection by race and ethnicity to the State of Hawaii; and
• Strongly endorsing employee self-identification of race and ethnicity, as opposed to visual identification by employers.

The new 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.

EEO-1 Reports are submitted annually to the Joint Reporting Committee for the use of the EEOC and OFCCP.  The report must be filed annually by employers with 100 or more employees, or employers with federal government contracts of $50,000 or more and 50 or more employees.  It also includes data on the size of employer establishments, the existence of other establishments within the company, the locations of the company's establishments, the industry of each company establishment, and the metropolitan area of the establishment.  Further information about the EEO-1 Report, including questions and answers on the final proposed revisions, is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov/eeo1/index.html. 

The EEOC is the federal government agency responsible for enforcing the nation's anti-discrimination laws in the workplace based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age and disability.  Additional information about the agency is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.