A federal commission voted Tuesday in favor of a Trump administration proposal to rescind requirements that larger employers report the demographics of their workers — information that’s used to help enforce racial and gender antidiscrimination laws.
Most employers with 100 or more workers have been required to submit data annually on staff sex, race and ethnicity since 1966 to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Earlier this summer, the administration submitted a proposed rule that would eliminate that reporting requirement for companies as well as for state and local governments.
The EEOC contends that demographics reporting requirements place an “impermissible focus on ‘minorities’ and women.” The commission argues the forms “may encourage employers to discriminate against employees who are not considered ‘minorities.'” The proposed rule will be posted to the Federal Register for a public comment period of 30 days, and a public hearing will be held Aug. 11, with requests to testify due Aug. 7.
Bloomberg Law reported that the commission voted 2-1 along party lines to advance the plan.
Since President Donald Trump took office, the administration has been focused on eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The new proposal, if finalized, would roll back federal oversight and limit employer transparency, experts say.
If the federal requirements end, states might step in to create their own requirements, said Alexandra Garrison Barnett, a partner at the law firm Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia.
“We might see more states imposing those kinds of requirements in the absence of a federal requirement, or we could see states banning or prohibiting employers from collecting (demographic information),” said Barnett, a labor and employment attorney who helps employers evaluate their DEI policies and strategies.
A handful of states already have requirements that employers collect and report on workplace demographic information, she noted.
The commission’s vote comes on Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. Tuesday marks how far into the year Black women must work to equal the average pay earned by a white man by the end of the previous year.
The lack of demographic data will hinder accountability for employers, said labor economist Valerie Rawlston Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy.
“(The proposal) is consistent with the general anti-equity push of this administration to eliminate pretty much all of the infrastructure that have been in place for equal employment in this country,” Wilson said. “We have laws in place that prohibit discrimination, but the effectiveness of those laws is really dependent on our ability to enforce those laws. And the enforcement of those laws is facilitated by having consistent reliable data.”
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reports that Black women make 64 cents for every dollar paid to white men — across all education levels and positions, including leadership positions.
Broken down by state, the gap widens: In Idaho, for example, Black women make 36 cents for every dollar white men make, across all workers with earnings.
The rule, Wilson said, would “severely hinder the ability of the EEOC to carry out its enforcement responsibilities.”
Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanen@stateline.org.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
