Stites & Harbison, PLLC

The "Employer Information Report," known as the EEO-1 Report (EEO-1), requires certain employers to provide to the EEOC, a count of their employees by ethnicity, race and gender, as well as by job category.  The EEO-1 is also, where appropriate, submitted to the Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).  Employers who have 100 or more employees, or have federal government contracts of $50,000 or more and 50 or more employees, are required to file the EEO-1.  The EEO-1 must be filed with the EEOC by September 30 each year.  In preparing the EEO-1, employers must use employment statistics from any pay period during July-September of that year. 

The new revisions made changes to the race and ethnic categories, including adding a new category, "Two or More Races," and renames, "Black" as "Black or African American."  The changes also rename "Hispanic" as "Hispanic or Latino."  In addition, the revised EEO-1 strongly endorses self-identification of race and ethnic categories, as opposed to visual identification by employers.

The category of "Officials and Managers" is now divided into two levels.  The two levels are:

1.    First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers (oversee day-to-day operations; direct implementation or operations within specific parameters set by Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers).

2.    Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers (plan, direct and formulate policy, set strategy and overall direction).

Another change in the sub-categories moves business and financial occupations from the "Officials and Managers" category to the "Professionals" category.  This change was made to improve data gathering used to analyze trends in the mobility of women and minorities within these groups.

With respect to the self-identification issue, the EEOC is encouraging employers to re-survey current employees using the new race and ethnic categories as soon as possible.  An employer must accept the employee's self-identification.  If an employee refuses to self-identify using the race and ethnic categories, employers may obtain the necessary information from either existing employment records or visual observation.  This method may only be used if an employee refuses to self-identify.

Information regarding the final revisions to the EEO-1 can be found at www.eeoc.gov/eeo1/index.html.  This website provides sections for questions and answers regarding the revisions to the EEO-1, the implementation of the revised race and ethnic categories, the final EEO-1 Report, an instruction booklet for the EEO-1 Report and a job classification guide.
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Shannon Antle Hamilton, the co-leader of Stites & Harbison's Employment Law Service Group, concentrates her practice in employment litigation and workplace issues.  If you have any questions regarding this or any other employment matter, please feel free to contact Shannon directly at shamilton@stites.com.