Civil rights groups warn ending EEOC workforce data could hide discrimination against Black workers
TheGrio...
Researchers and advocates say eliminating a 60-year-old reporting requirement would make it harder to identify racial disparities across American workplaces.
Civil rights groups and researchers are warning that the Trump administration’s plan to end a 60-year-old workplace reporting requirement could make discrimination against Black workers harder to detect. The concerns come after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) moved last month to end its racial data collection rule, and amid broader changes to civil rights enforcement under President Donald Trump. The fight over EEOC workforce data now enters a public-comment period.
At an EEOC hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 22 speakers testified about the proposal to eliminate annual EEO-1 reports. Most opposed the change, while six supported it.
AP reported that since 1966, private employers with at least 100 workers and certain federal contractors with at least 50 employees have been required to submit EEO-1 reports showing race and sex representation across job categories.
The Republican-led commission voted 2-1 in July to propose ending the requirement. The proposal remains open for public comment through Aug. 24 and is not yet final.
Civil rights advocates argue the data has helped expose workplace disparities and track whether Black workers, women and other groups are gaining access to jobs and promotions. Amalea Smirniotopoulos of the Legal Defense Fund warned that weakening the EEOC’s enforcement tools would particularly harm Black workers and other workers of color, who continue to report racial discrimination.
Researchers also told the commission that the data is difficult to replace. Donald Tomaskovic-Devey of the University of Massachusetts Amherst said he has used EEO-1 information in dozens of research articles and warned that eliminating it would leave the country with far less visibility into workplace inequality.
Supporters of ending the requirement argue that collecting race and sex data is burdensome and unnecessary for enforcing federal anti-discrimination law and may encourage employers to make employment decisions based on protected characteristics.
But representatives of two employer groups told the commission they had seen little evidence that businesses use the reports to impose racial quotas. They said companies often use the same data to identify hiring or promotion patterns that may unintentionally exclude certain groups.
The debate over EEOC workforce data comes as the Trump administration continues rolling back federal diversity and inclusion policies. If the proposal becomes final, employers could still collect demographic information for their own compliance purposes, but the federal government would no longer require the EEO-1 submissions covered by the rule.