The EEO-1 Pay Data Collection saga continues and will resurface Friday before a panel of the U.S. Court Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The Obama-era Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) originally ordered companies to submit pay data, broken down by sex and race, as part of their annual EEO-1 Report.
(The EEO-1 is an annual survey that requires all private employers with 100 or more employees and federal government contractors or first-tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and a federal contract, subcontract or purchase order amounting to $50,000 or more to file the EEO-1 report.)
However, before data could be collected, the incoming Trump administration and its Office of Management and Budget (OMB) nixed the plan.
The National Women’s Law Center then filed suit to restore the data collection, and Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the District of Columbia District Court ruled that the “previous approval of the revised EEO-1 form shall be in effect,” explaining that the OMB had failed to provide a “reasoned explanation” for the cancellation of pay data gathering.
The Trump administration on Friday will argue before a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court that the judge lacked authority to order the collection of the pay data and will also challenge the standing of the group that filed the lawsuit — the National Women’s Law Center — arguing that it hadn’t been harmed enough by the cancellation.
Meanwhile, the court-ordered data collection effort continues through at least Jan. 31, 2020, or until Judge Chutkan is satisfied with the results.