Now that you have recently submitted your 2006 EEO-1 forms to the EEOC, probably the last thing that you want to think about is preparing for the 2007 report. However, there are significant new reporting developments for 2007 and 2008 of which you should be aware and begin planning for now.
- For the report due in September 2007, the new EEO-1 form MUST BE used.
- A number of changes have been made to the race and ethnic categories. The revised EEO-1 report:
- Adds a new category titled “Two or more races”;
- Divides “Asian or Pacific Islander” into two separate categories: “Asian” and “Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander”;
- Renames “Black” as “Black or African American”;
- Renames “Hispanic” as “Hispanic or Latino”; and
- Strongly endorses self-identification of race and ethnic categories, as opposed to visual identification by employers.
- You may, but you DO NOT have to, resurvey until AFTER the September 2007 EEO-1 filing. Thus, the EEOC is giving you until 2008 to survey your workforce and figure out, for example, who is “two or more races” or who is “Hawaiian” (something you can’t know intuitively). Nonetheless, if you do know that information before September 2007, you may file that information on the new EEO-1 form for September 2007; however, if you do NOT know the “two or more races” or “Hawaiian” information (because you have not yet re-surveyed your workforce before September 2007), you need NOT report it on the September 2007 form (you will simply leave blank the “two or more races” or “Hawaiian” columns).
- You MUST “resurvey” your workforce (i.e., use the new racial definitions) in preparing to file the September 2008 EEO-1.
- A couple of changes have also been made to the job categories for 2007:
- The current category of “Officials and Managers” will be divided into two levels based on responsibility and influence within the organization. These two levels will be:
- Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers; and
- First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers.
- The revised EEO-1 also will move business and financial occupations from the Officials and Managers category to the Professionals category.
- You do not need to re-survey your workforce to assign managers to the new EEO- 1 reporting categories for managers. You know what kind of managers you employ, so assign them to one of the two new manager boxes.
Employers with federal government contracts of $50,000 or more (and 50 or more employees) and employers who do not have a federal government contract but have 100 or more employees must file an EEO-1 report.