Jessica Guynn. USA TODAY
Just how diverse is corporate America? For decades, it has been the federal government’s job to keep track.
Each year, major companies submit a breakdown of employees by race and gender in a form popularly known as an EEO-1 report. Since the 1960s, this trove of demographic data has been instrumental in spotting patterns of discrimination and supporting civil rights investigations in the workplace.
Not for much longer. The Trump administration has signaled it’s putting a stop to it as part of its diversity, equity and inclusion reforms.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission notified the White House last week that it plans to eliminate the reporting requirement for corporations as well as labor unions, state and local governments, apprenticeship programs and schools, marking a significant escalation in the fight over corporate diversity.
In recent years, EEO-1 data gave Americans greater visibility into how level the playing field is in their workplace, and critics warn cutting off this information flow will make it harder for corporations and regulators to gauge that. The Trump White House argues this is just the latest in a series of necessary steps to unwind Biden-era policies that unfairly promoted favored groups over others.
Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois, attempted to amend an appropriations bill to require that EEOC fund the collection of employee demographic information, but the effort was rebuffed without Republican support.
Information tracking the state of diversity in the American workplace won’t go away entirely. States like California and Illinois still require employers to submit workforce demographics reports. If the federal government stops collecting EEO-1 data, more states may enact similar reporting requirements. But little else stands in the EEOC’s way, legal observers say.
“After 60 years, EEO-1 reporting seems likely to come to an end sometime over the next few years,” the Littler law firm said in a blog post.
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