For over 50 years, by September 30, employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with at least 50 employees were required to submit an EEO-1 report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEO-1 report provides the EEOC with data about the size, location, and race and gender demographics of an employer’s workforce. In 2017, due to proposed changes that would have required employers to also provide information on employee compensation and hours worked, the filing deadline for 2017 EEO-1 reports was changed to March 31, 2018.  Although those changes were later withdrawn by the Office of Management and Budget, the new filing deadline stayed in place.

Now that September is once again upon us, it is important to note that March 31 continues to be the annual deadline. Accordingly, the 2018 EEO-1 report is currently due on March 31, 2019,¹ based on a workforce payroll snapshot taken between October 1 and December 31, 2018. The information gathered by employers between October and December should include each employee’s race, gender, EEO-1 job category, and physical location. Other information helpful to completing the report, but not required, includes employee name, manager, and work location.

Employers can also take other steps to prepare for the next cycle of EEO-1 reporting:

• Include in the end-of-year data snapshot an employee's location and manager so that remote employees are included in the correct report.
• Assess in advance the most appropriate Q4 payroll period from which to pull the organization’s annual snapshot.
• Consider whether another offer to employees to self-identify their race and gender would be helpful in advance of the Q4 snapshot to improve data quality.