In a move that will surprise few, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has “stayed” the upcoming EEO-1 compensation data reporting requirement, pending further review. As we previously wrote about here, in 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) implemented a rule requiring employers with 100 or more employees (and federal contractors with 50 or more employees) to include compensation data in their annual EEO-1 reports. Covered employers were already required to file an EEO-1 report tracking race/ethnicity and sex; the stay does not impact this requirement.
Title VII and the Equal Pay Act expressly ban the unequal treatment and compensation of female employees. Yet pay inequity can creep in to even the most well-intentioned companies. As a consequence, standards for evaluating pay practices are rapidly evolving in both the public and private sectors, and many companies are pledging to improve wage equality. What’s more, with the EEOC now targeting equal pay discrimination, we are primed to see a wave of class action lawsuits that could cost companies millions in back pay and damages. Is your company keeping up?