EEOC Overhauls EEO-1 Report – January 31, 2006

All employers with 100 or more employees need to be aware that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has implemented the first major changes to the the EEO-1 Report in four decades.

The EEO-1 Report 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. The agency expects employers to use the current format for their 2006 EEO-1 submissions.

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 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.

The new report format, instructions, and explanation can be found on the EEOC’s website at www.eeoc.gov.