Beginning in 2007, for the first time in nearly 40 years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC’s) primary employer reporting form, the “EEO-1 Report,” will undergo significant changes.

First adopted in 1966, the EEO-1 report, also known as the “Standard Form 100,” is a government form requiring private employers who employ more than 100 employees, or employers with federal government contracts of $50,000 or more and with 50 or more workers, to provide an annual accounting of their employees by job category, ethnicity, race, and gender. The report is due by September 30 of each year. Although the EEOC and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs use these reports internally for, among other things, compliance investigations, the agencies and private litigants often use the data in employment discrimination cases.

The 2007 changes, effective for the reporting cycle ending September 30, 2007, generally affect two areas of the EEO-1 report: (1) they increase the number of employee racial/ethnic categories, and (2) they expand the number of potential employee job categories. The EEOC believes that the changes will yield more accurate data.

The race and ethnic categories are being changed to allow self-reporting by individuals of two or more races in response to new government standards for reporting race and ethnicity issued by the Office of Management and Budget in 1997. To this end, the revised EEO-1 form divides employees among seven potential racial/ethnic categories:

• White (not Hispanic or Latino)
• Hispanic or Latino
• Black or African American
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (not Hispanic or Latino)
• Asian (not Hispanic or Latino)
• American Indian or Alaska Native (not Hispanic or Latino)
• Two or More Races (encompassing persons who identify with more than one of the above races, excluding those who identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino)

In comparison, the current EEO-1 form has five categories. The revised form divides into two separate categories “Asians” and “Pacific Islanders”; adds the new category entitled “two or more races”; renames “Black” to “Black or African American”; and renames “Hispanic” to “Hispanic or Latino.”

The job category changes are being made to better track the representation of women and minorities at different levels of management. To accomplish this goal, the EEOC has divided “Officials and Managers” into two levels based on responsibility and influence:

• “Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers” (defined as those who plan, direct and formulate policy, set strategy and provide overall direction; in larger organizations, within two reporting levels of CEO); or
• “First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers” (defined as those who direct implementation or operations within specific parameters set by Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers and those who oversee day-to-day operations).

Non-managerial business and financial occupations are moved from the “Officials and Managers” category to the “Professionals” category.

To reduce transitional confusion, covered employers should train human resources staff early in the 2007 reporting year; institute (or revise) self-identification forms; re-survey the workforce for any classification changes; divide current “Officials and Managers” into the two new categories (“Executive/Senior Level” category or the “First/Mid-Level” category); and make sure that non-managerial business and financial employees are correctly categorized as “Professionals.”

Robert Q. Romanelli

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