Late last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its revised Form EEO-1. For the first time, the form will require employers to provide summary information about employee pay broken down by gender, race and ethnicity. The EEOC says that this information will allow the agency to identify outlying companies whose pay information appears to indicate disparities on these bases. While the summary pay information will not serve as the sole basis for an enforcement action, it could lead to agency scrutiny and additional inquiries.

Employers complained about the additional regulatory burden imposed by the new requirement, noting that in the end, it is unlikely to lead to the discovery of useful information regarding actual pay disparities. Nevertheless, some employers may decide to use the form revision as an opportunity to internally study their own pay structures, to either correct or establish the reasons for disparities that may appear from the summary information.

In an earlier revision, the EEOC agreed to extend the effective date for the new form to coincide with issuance of 2017 W-2 reports. Therefore, the new Form EEO-1 will take effect for the 2017 calendar year, with reports due by March 31, 2018.