On March 18, 2019, the EEO-1 filing portal opened, allowing employers with 100 or more employees and covered federal contractors with 50 or more employees to begin filing EEO-1 reports.  This is consistent with the schedule set by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) following the partial government shutdown in early 2019, which resulted in a postponement of the EEO-1 filing from March 31, 2019 until May 31, 2019.

The EEOC’s opening of the EEO-1 portal and accompanying guidance, however, provide no instructions relative to the March 4, 2019 decision in National Women’s Law Center v. Office of Management and Budget,¹ which potentially put Obama-era compensation reporting back in play on the EEO-1.  Instead, the EEOC has merely assured employers that it “will provide further information as soon as possible” on that front.

The fact that reporting has opened without any requirement that employers provide data on compensation and hours worked is significant in that it seems unlikely the EEOC will require a supplemental 2018 EEO-1 filing with such information.  Thus, the 2018 filing procedure appears to confirm speculation by many that the judicial order vacating the stay of compensation data reporting will have no immediate impact on EEO-1 reporting.  Nonetheless, employers are cautioned to watch this issue closely for developments and to assess their readiness for possible compensation reporting either later this year or in 2020.