Beginning April 26, 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will open its EEO-1 portal for three months for 2019 and 2020 reporting. EEO-1s must be submitted by covered employers, annually, and must disclose information including the number of employees who work for the business. The individuals must be sorted into job category, race, ethnicity and sex.

Businesses with at least 100 employees and federal contractors with at least 50 employees (plus a $50,000 or greater contract with federal government) must file data annually, under federal law. The information obtained by the EEOC, particularly about the number of women and minorities, is used to analyze employment patterns and considered in determinations to ultimately support civil rights enforcement.

Here is some of the latest news and updates to EEO- 1 policy for 2021:

• Employers have until July 19, 2021 (deadline has been extended until August 23, 2021) to submit 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 data. This expands the collection period from 10 to 12 weeks this year.
• Due to the pandemic, the EEOC delayed 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 collections until 2021 to allow filers an opportunity to provide accurate, valid and reliable data.
• The EEOC stated that it does not intend to collect controversial pay data from Component 2 of the EEO-1 form (including employee hours worked and pay information) as the burden imposed on employers in gathering such information was determined to be too taxing.
• California employers are required to file an annual EEO-1 report, even if a covered business has just one California employee, or one who lives out of state but reports to a California manager.