The administration’s deregulatory push continues with civil rights regulations now in the crosshairs. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a proposed rule last week removing the requirement for EEO data reporting under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In a press release outlining their rationale, the EEOC states:
“In the NPRM, the Commission determined that the EEO Data Reports are inconsistent with equal employment opportunity law, may raise constitutional concerns, and collect data that is not narrowly tailored or necessary to enforce anti-discrimination statutes. Under Title VII, the EEOC is not required to impose these reporting obligations and may eliminate them when they are inconsistent with the law, not useful, or counter to enforcement priorities. The NPRM concludes that any limited value of the reports is outweighed by the significant burdens they impose on employers and on the Commission — particularly because employers must submit them annually without any specific indication of a potential violation.”
Removing this requirement will make it significantly more difficult to gain transparency into the demographic makeup of a company’s workforce. Given that EEO Data Reporting has been around since 1966, it will be interesting to see if companies choose to continue disclosing this data on a voluntary basis. Additionally, we’ll see how the investor community reacts. Generally, investors prefer access to data of any kind. Since companies already have the processes and procedures in place to collect and report demographic data, there may be pressure from investors to continue that reporting.
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