For several decades, private employers with 100 or more employees and certain federal contractors have been required to annually file the EEO-1 report. The EEO-1 report collected information about the race/ ethnicity and sex of large employers’ workforces at each location by job category. Similar reporting requirements exist for labor unions (the EEO-3), state and local governments (the EEO-4) and public and secondary school systems (the EEO-5). On May 14, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) submitted a proposed rule to a division within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that would end the EEO-1 and other reporting mandates. This development comes at a time when employers have been waiting for the annual EEO-1 reporting portal to open for the 2026 filing cycle.
The proposed rule, which is titled “Rescission of EEO-1, EEO-2, EEO-3, EEO-4, EEO-5, and Reporting Requirement Under Title VII, the ADA, GINA, and the PWFA,” seems to align with the Trump administration’s policies and enforcement priorities targeting DEI. Employers often use EEO-1 reporting as a way to assist them in analyzing their own DEI progress or to identify areas of potential discrimination. The Trump administration has taken the position that employers should not be tracking race-based or sex-based data and that these and other DEI initiatives often cross the line into unlawful discrimination against white applicants and employees. This development is also being seen as consistent with the EEOC’s recent commitment to prioritizing civil rights cases focused on “anti-white” bias and investigating companies for their diversity programs.
The EEOC has not announced how this significant departure will impact employers’ obligations this year and it is unclear if or when the proposal will be finalized. While the proposal to eliminate the EEO-1 report introduces uncertainty, for now, the safest course of action is for employers to assume that EEO-1 reporting remains in effect. It is likely employers may still have to file EEO-1 reports sometime in 2026 (which will reflect demographic data from a workforce snapshot during the final quarter of 2025), because of the time-consuming process required to implement the EEOC’s proposed rule. The proposal must first be reviewed by OMB and then published in the Federal Register for public comment before any final rule can be adopted.
Bond continues to follow this development closely. Please contact Christa Cook, any attorney in Bond's labor and employment practice or the Bond attorney with whom you normally work, for questions, concerns and tailored consultation.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) opened its EEO-1 filing platform on May 20, 2025. The deadline for employers to file their EEO-1 reports will be Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
Changes for the 2024 Data Reporting Process
The EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) regulations require all private sector employers with 100 or more employees and certain federal contractors who are prime contractors or first tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees to file EEO-1 reports annually through the EEOC’s dedicated website for EEO-1 component 1 data collection. While Executive Order 11246 was rescinded, the EEOC still requires federal contractors with 50 or more employees to file EEO-1 reports on their 2024 data. Additionally, a private employer with fewer than 100 employees must file an EEO-1 Component 1 report if the employer owns, is owned by and/or is affiliated or associated with another employer or there is a centralized or common ownership, control or management so that the group of employers constitutes a single enterprise and/or integrated enterprise and the entire enterprise has 100 or more employees during an employer selected pay period in the fourth quarter (i.e., Oct. 1 through Dec. 31) of the reporting year. The EEO-1 report requires the submission of demographic workforce data to the EEOC, including data by job category and sex and race or ethnicity.
Notably, the EEOC has shortened the 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 filing cycle. Unlike past years, employers will face a hard deadline for all filings of 11:00 p.m. (EDT) on June 24, 2025, with no extensions. Another change in this year’s filing process is that the EEOC is no longer sending notifications via postal mail. All official communications related to EEO-1 reporting will now be sent electronically.
Consistent with President’s Trump’s Executive Order 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, the EEOC will only accept employee data categorized by male or female during this EEO-1 filing. The new instruction booklet for reporting for the 2024 cycle removes the option to report employees as nonbinary. In the past, employers were allowed to report such employees in the “comments” section of the survey. If an employee chooses not to voluntarily self-identify their gender or self-identifies as nonbinary, the federal government requires the company to determine this information by visual survey and/or other available information.
Employers must file their EEO-1 reports through the web-based filing system, which is accessible at www.eeocdata.org/eeo1. The EEOC has published a webpage with resources for employers, including frequently asked questions (FAQs), a user guide, and other resources. The 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 Data Collection Instruction Booklet can be found at the following link: https://www.eeocdata.org/EEO1/home/instructionbooklet
Notably, federal contractors who have federal contracts or subcontracts totaling $150,000 or more must file the annual VETS-4212 report to the Department of Labor by Sept. 30, 2025. Data reported through form VETS-4212 is used by OFCCP in Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) compliance evaluations.
For more information regarding these filing deadlines or compliance with the OFCCP’s affirmative action requirements, please contact Christa Cook or any of the attorneys in Bond’s labor and employment practice.
Each year, the EEOC collects workforce data from private sector employers with more than 100 employees (lower thresholds apply to federal contractors). This workforce data is collected through the EEO-1 Component 1 report and includes workplace demographic data such as sex, race and ethnicity, broken down by job category. Employers meeting the reporting thresholds have a legal obligation to provide the data; it is not voluntary.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on Sept. 1, 2023, that its EEO-1 filing platform will open on Oct. 31, 2023. The deadline for employers to file their EEO-1 reports will be Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023.
In the wake of the social justice movements and a nationwide push towards greater equality, transparency, diversity and accountability, it is expected that pay equity will be a focus for the Biden administration in the coming year. Pay equity issues are gaining the attention of employees and, in turn, becoming of increasing concern for employers.
On May 7, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it will delay the 2019 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection and the 2020 EEO-3 and EEO-5 data collections due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The notice was published in the Federal Register on May 8.
On July 15, 2019, the EEOC issued the final protocols for enhanced EEO-1 reporting. Most private sector employers with 100 or more employees are now required to report, on or before September 30, 2019, pay and hours data on all employees for 2017 and 2018 by job category, gender, race, and ethnicity. Initially launched as part of the Obama administration’s initiative to address pay equity, the EEO-1 Component 2 requirements will impose short term burdens and potential long term risks for many employers.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Friday in a press release that the opening of the EEO-1 Survey for 2018 has been postponed until March 2019 and the deadline for submitting EEO-1 data will be extended until May 31, 2019.
The EEO-1 report must be filed by: (1) private employers with 100 or more employees, excluding state and local governments, primary and secondary school systems, institutions of higher education, Indian tribes, and tax-exempt private membership clubs other than labor organizations; and (2) federal government contractors or first-tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and a contract, subcontract, or purchase order amounting to $50,000 or more.
Filers should check the EEOC web page pertaining to the EEO-1 Survey in the coming weeks for details, instructions, and schedule updates.
On August 29, 2017, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) suspended the implementation of the new EEO-1 form, pending a review of the effectiveness of those aspects of the EEO-1 form that were revised on September 29, 2016. The revisions to the EEO-1 form, which were scheduled to take effect in March 2018, included:
A modification of the “snapshot” data collection period for reporting to October 1 through December 31;
A requirement that employers who have a reporting obligation (employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees) submit detailed information on compensation and hours worked; and
A change in the EEO-1 filing deadline for 2017 to March 31, 2018.
In the memorandum issued by OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) to the Acting Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) regarding the suspension of the new wage data reporting requirements, OIRA stated that it was “initiating a review and immediate stay of the effectiveness of the new aspects of the EEO-1 form.” OIRA provided three reasons for its decision:
After OMB approved the revised EEO-1 form in September of 2016, the EEOC released data file specifications for employers to use when submitting EEO-1 data, which were not contained in the Federal Register notices as part of the public comment process or outlined in the supporting statement for the collection of information, so the public was denied an opportunity to comment on the method of data submission to the EEOC;
The EEOC’s estimates of the burden the new form would place on employers did not account for the use of the newly released data file specifications, which may have changed the initial burden estimates; and
Some aspects of the revised collection of information are contrary to the standards of the Paperwork Reduction Act, lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues.
In response to OIRA’s memorandum, the EEOC announced that employers should plan to file the earlier approved version of the EEO-1 form, without the compensation and hours worked data, by the filing date of March 31, 2018. Employers should still use the new “snapshot” period of October 1 through December 31, 2017, for the submission of the 2017 EEO-1 form.
