Since 1966, nearly all of employers have been legally required to offer a confidential breakdown of their workforce by race and gender to the federal government. The mandate—which applies to any firm with a minimum of 100 workers and federal contractors with 50 or extra workers—was launched not lengthy after the Equal Employment Alternative Fee was created, to assist the company implement anti-discrimination legal guidelines.
Now the EEOC has made the unprecedented decision to rescind these reporting necessities. This week, the company voted 2-1 in favor of a proposal to get rid of this knowledge assortment—often called an EEO-1 report—together with related obligatory disclosures from unions, state and native authorities, and public colleges. The proposed rule is slated to be finalized and adopted after a 30-day remark interval, which permits for members of the general public to submit suggestions.
EEOC chair Andrea Lucas—who was appointed by President Trump—has argued that EEO-1 reporting necessities might be at odds with civil rights legislation, regardless of the longstanding precedent. “. . . The EEO Knowledge Studies stand in direct pressure with Title VII’s requirement that employment practices be colorblind,” she mentioned in a press release. “Amassing such knowledge about workers’ race and intercourse—absent any particular allegation of discrimination—not solely dangers hindering efficient enforcement of equal employment legal guidelines but in addition raises constitutional considerations.”
Kalpana Kotagal, the one Democratic commissioner, voted in opposition to the proposal and claimed it could “kneecap the company’s capacity to research discrimination and shield staff.” She dismissed considerations that EEO-1 reporting necessities have been unconstitutional as “untethered from actuality” and urged employers to proceed monitoring demographic knowledge for quite a few causes, together with compliance with anti-discrimination legal guidelines.
“These efforts must be seen for what they’re: an try to weaken equal employment alternative, and to undermine progress for ladies and traditionally marginalized communities,” she mentioned in a statement. “It’s a See No Evil, Hear No Evil, strategy. However discrimination doesn’t go away simply since you erase the info. It simply turns into more durable to show. Enforcement will get weaker. It takes extra time. It’s costlier. Accountability suffers. And staff get left behind.”
Advocates and former EEOC officers have additionally vocally opposed this choice. Katie Sandson on the Nationwide Ladies’s Regulation Middle mentioned it “opens the door for discrimination to be swept below the rug.” In Could, when the EEOC submitted a plan to the White Home teasing this proposal, the EEO Leaders—a nonpartisan coalition of former EEOC and Division of Labor officers—released a statement explaining why EEO-1 knowledge was crucial to the company’s mission.
“These knowledge, together with different investigative instruments, assist the EEOC to determine patterns which will warrant additional inquiry early in its investigation of discrimination expenses, thus serving to the company to deploy its restricted investigatory sources effectively,” the assertion learn. “Traditionally, the EEOC has analyzed EEO-1 knowledge to focus the company’s outreach and steerage on industries the place empirical proof means that limitations could exist. The lack of this knowledge will make it harder for the EEOC to conduct focused, evidence-based instructional outreach sooner or later.”
That is simply the most recent in a collection of maneuvers by the EEOC to undermine efforts to foster range within the office. Since Lucas stepped in as chair in early 2025, she has explicitly aligned the company’s priorities with the Trump administration’s govt orders focusing on range, fairness, and inclusion within the office.
As a part of this directive, the company has pursued a high-profile investigation into Nike’s DEI practices, together with quite a few different instances which have resulted in important settlements with employers. Columbia College, for instance, agreed to fork over $21 million within the largest public settlement with the EEOC in practically twenty years. The EEOC’s strategy to the Nike investigation means that the company desires the case to achieve the Supreme Courtroom, which might have far-reaching penalties for DEI within the office. Former and present EEOC officers have also alleged that the EEOC has been aggressively pursuing discrimination claims introduced by white males.
In recent times, loads of employers have stopped publishing diversity reports and sharing demographic knowledge publicly because the political local weather has shifted and public stress on corporations has lifted. Trump’s executive orders have already revoked affirmative motion necessities for federal contractors, which had lengthy helped mitigate employment discrimination and promote racial fairness. If the EEOC’s proposed rule stays intact after the remark interval, employers could have little purpose to proceed monitoring demographic knowledge or supply visibility into their hiring practices.
