Questions Answered for Completing EEO-1 Reports

​The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released two new sets of FAQs, called Volume 2 and Volume 3, to help employers correctly submit their 2022 EEO-1 forms.

The guidelines, published on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, confirm that employers must submit employee demographic data by job category, sex, race and ethnicity for all full-time and part-time employees, even those who resigned or were terminated after the reporting period. The Volume 3 FAQs focus on reporting for federal contractors.

Companies can start submitting their demographic data on the EEO-1 form now, and submissions are due by Dec. 5. Employers should pick a pay period between Oct. 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2022, to provide a snapshot of their employee demographics. Employees who work remotely must be included in an employer's EEO-1 form by the specific worksite to which they report. An employee's home address should never be reported on any EEO-1 report, the EEOC said.

All employers with 100 or more U.S. employees and federal contractors with at least 50 U.S. employees must submit an EEO-1 report every year.

"As employers continue to face pressure from various groups to make EEO-1 reports public, and as certain states—most notably California and Illinois—have linked their own reporting requirements to the EEO-1 format, it has become more important than ever to pay attention to the EEO-1 reporting process to ensure that the reports are complete and accurate," Chris Gokturk and David Goldstein, attorneys for Littler in Tysons Corner, Va., and Minneapolis, wrote in an analysis.

Multi-Establishment Employers

A multi-establishment employer is an employer with more than one establishment where business is conducted or services are performed. An establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted or services are performed, the EEOC said.

A multi-establishment employer must submit three types of EEO-1 reports to the EEOC: consolidated report, headquarters report and establishment-level reports. The consolidated report will be autopopulated and autogenerated with data from the headquarters report and each establishment-level

report. A multi-establishment company cannot make changes directly to the consolidated report, but it can edit the headquarters report and/or establishment-level reports to ensure the consolidated report reflects accurate totals. A business can make updates to its 2022 EEO-1 reports until Jan. 9, 2024, but it must certify its reports on or before that date, the EEOC noted.

Establishments at different physical locations must be reported as separate establishments, even if they conduct the same business or perform the same services or industrial operations.

Employers should only include establishments located in the 50 states and Washington, D.C. They should not include establishments located in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands or other American protectorates.

If an employer has experienced an acquisition, spinoff or merger since the last EEO-1 reporting cycle, the employer must use the "report acquisition, spinoff, or merger" module in the EEO-1 online filing system to report any changes to the EEOC.

The EEO-1 form does not collect pay data, but some states, including California, have added that requirement, according to Caroline Burnett and Robin Samuel, attorneys with Baker McKenzie in San Francisco and Los Angeles.