Dive Brief:
- Two employee advocacy groups have sued the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), alleging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) violations around its decision to scrap EEO-1 pay reporting requirements.
- OMB halted the Obama-era requirements before they took effect but, according to the lawsuit, has not responded to repeated FOIA requests regarding its “sudden and largely unexplained” decision to block the requirements.
- The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the National Women’s Law Center alleged that OMB failed to respond and produce responsive documents and failed to grant a public interest fee waiver request, in violation of FOIA requirements.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) generally requires private employers with 100 or more employees to report workers' demographic information annually using its Form EEO-1.
The commission added compensation data to the form's reporting requirements during the Obama Administration in an effort to combat pay discrimination. In 2016, OMB approved the revisions but, following the administration change and pressure from employers, reversed its decision.
The revocation doesn’t prevent EEOC from requiring such information in the future, however, and President Donald Trump's picks for the commission have said they are committed to reworking the requirements, if confirmed. Some experts have suggested that employers use this reprieve to cull pay data, both to know whether they can in the future and to head off any potential pay discrimination claims. The recommendation comes with a few caveats, however, as doing so without an attorney could create more problems than it resolves.
