The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is proposing to expand employer reporting requirements to target what the Obama administration calls a stubborn and persistent gender pay gap.

Current rules require federal contractors and first-tier subcontractors with more than 50 employees and all companies with more than 100 employees to annually report the number of individuals they employ by job category, race, ethnicity and gender.  The new rules, unveiled by President Obama on Jan. 29 and published in the Federal Register on Feb. 1, would require these employers to also report the number of hours employees work and how much they are paid.

The administration says the new rule is necessary to help the EEOC enforce equal pay laws and “provide better insight” into the gender pay gap across industries and occupations. Critics charge that the new proposal is overly intrusive, will impose significant new paperwork burdens on businesses and subject employers to unnecessary and time consuming investigations.

More information on the EEOC proposal is located at:  https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/02/01/2016-01544/agency-information-collection-activities-revision-of-the-employer-information-report-eeo-1-and.  Comments are due by April 1.  The administration plans to roll out the final rule before the end of 2016 and require employers to start providing the additional data in the 2017 reporting cycle.

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