It rolls around each year:  back to school, Labor Day, football season and the September 30th deadline for government reporting.  While next year may bring changes given the proposed  EEO-1 pay report, the filing obligations remained unchanged for this year.

Extensions

Of note, we suspect the deadlines may not be automatically extended this year as they have been in years past, so employers should not count on this.  Why?  Unlike in years past, the EEO-1 reporting system has been updated and the Joint Reporting Committee (JRC) is promptly responding to requests for IDs and passwords.  However, employers may request and receive a “one-time” 30-day extension here.  The JRC states, “No extensions will be granted after Oct. 30th.”

Strategic Considerations

As your organization files reports this year and in the future, be strategic and consider the following:

For All Employers

Implications for Pay Reporting in Q1 2018.  Beginning in Q1 2018, employers will likely have to file W-2 earnings from calendar year 2017 and hours worked on every EEO-1 Report.  This pay data will be used by the enforcement agencies to determine which organizations to investigate as well as made public by the agency.

Ensure you are prepared by doing the following:

• Conduct a pay equity analysis to identify and address pay issues now.

• At the beginning of the year, conduct “test runs” of your 2016 W-2 and hours worked data to determine if your organization is prepared to pull and merge the data required from your HRIS and payroll systems to complete these reports.  This will help inform if new reports need to be queries and the manpower required to complete these new obligations.

• Breaking up Separate Legal Entities and Location.  Employers should accurately break up their reports by separate legal entity and location.  There are specific rules on how to handle locations of less than 50 employees, which notably differ between the two sets of reports.  Ensure they are handled properly – they should not be automatically rolled to the closest location, etc.  We often see issues with employees in these smaller locations placed into incorrect reports.

For Federal Contractors and Subcontractors

• Consistency with AAP Structure.  In OFCCP audits, federal contractors and subcontractors must submit these reports, which should be set up relatively consistently (with a few exceptions) to the AAP.  OFCCP will compare to the AAP numbers by EEO-1 category and use for evaluative purposes to determine compliance.  This is also important as the EEO-1 reports are used to select employers for audits and locations of less than 50 are generally not selected for audit.

• Using the VETS-4212 to Evaluate Compliance with the Vets Hiring Benchmark.  The hiring section of the VETS-4212 report reflects progress toward the current 6.9% veteran hiring benchmark and the effectiveness of your outreach efforts.  OFCCP evaluates this in audits.

Happy reporting and, as always, let us know if we can help.