©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Developments in Equal Pay Litigation | 5 In National Women’s Law Center v. Office of Management and Budget,28 the District Court for the District of Columbia held that the OMB’s stay was unlawful. Ultimately, the court vacated the stay, holding that it “totally lacked the reasoned explanation that the APA requires.”29 The court issued a series of orders that required the EEOC to complete the Component 2 data collections for calendar years 2017 and 2018.30 Then, on September 12, 2019, the EEOC issued a Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, wherein it stated that it was not planning to continue using the EEO-1 Report to collect Component 2 data information.31 The EEOC’s decision to stop collecting Component 2 data settled the matter only briefly. In 2020, states began to enact laws that required employers to submit data reporting that was very similar to the EEOC’s rescinded Component 2 data reporting requirements. In 2020, California passed its Pay Data Reporting Law. Under that law, on or before March 31, 2021, and each year thereafter, private employers with 100 or more employees were required to submit a pay data report to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that includes the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex in ten categories, which track the federal EEO-1 categories.32 The report must include previous year W-2 earnings and hours worked for all employees and must be searchable and sortable.33 In 2021, Illinois amended its Equal Pay Act so that private employers with more than 100 employees in Illinois who are required to file an EEO-1 Report with the EEOC must apply to obtain an equal pay registration certificate from the Illinois Department of Labor.34 Those employers must then recertify every two years thereafter. The application must include a copy of the business’s most recently filed EEO-1 Report.35 The law also requires employers to compile a list of all employees during the past calendar year, separated by gender, race, and ethnicity, the county in which the employee works, and the date the employee started working for the business, and report the total wages for those employees. Employers must also submit a statement signed by a corporate officer, legal counsel, or other authorized agent, attesting to the company’s compliance with the Illinois Equal Pay Act and other federal and state antidiscrimination laws, among other things.36 State-level equal pay legislation has developed rapidly over the past few years in ways that touch on many aspects of a company’s operations. At present, this trend shows no signs of decelerating. 28 Nat’l Women’s Law Ctr. v. Office of Mgmt. & Budget, 358 F. Supp. 3d 66 (D.D.C. Mar. 4, 2019). The OMB had justified its stay based on the fact that the data file specifications that employers were to use in submitting EEO-1 data were not contained in the Federal Register notices. Id. at 87. According to the OMB, this meant that the public was not given an opportunity to provide comment on the method by which employers were to submit data and that the EEOC’s burden estimates did not account for the use of those data specifications. But the court held that the data file specifications merely explained how to format a spreadsheet, they did not change the content of the information collected: “[t]he government's argument therefore focuses on a technicality that did not affect the employers submitting the data.” Id. With respect to the burden estimates, the court noted that the OMB had not found that the data file would change the EEOC’s initial estimates, just that it may do so, an assertion the court said was “unsupported by any analysis.” Id. at 88. 29 Id. at 90. 30 See Order, Nat’l Women’s Law Ctr., No. 17-CV-2458 (D.D.C. Apr. 25, 2019), ECF No. 71; see also Press Release, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC Opens Calendar Years 2017 and 2018 Pay Data Collection (July 15, 2019), https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/7-15-19.cfm; Order, Nat’l Women’s Law Ctr., No. 17-CV-2458 (D.D.C. Apr. 25, 2019), ECF No. 71; Order, Nat’l Women’s Law Ctr., No. 17-CV-2458 (D.D.C. Oct. 29, 2019), ECF No. 91; Order, Nat’l Women’s Law Ctr., No. 17-CV-2458 (D.D.C. Feb. 10, 2020), ECF No. 102. 31 Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, 84 Fed. Reg. 48138 (Sept. 12, 2019); see also Press Release, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC Holds Public Hearing on Proposed EEO-1 Report Amendments (Nov. 4, 2019), https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/11-4-19a.cfm; Press Release, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC Holds Public Hearing on Proposed EEO-1 Report Amendments (Nov. 4, 2019), available at https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/11-4-19a.cfm. 32 Cal. Gov. Code § 12999. The law requires that a “private employer that has 100 or more employees and who is required to file an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) pursuant to federal law shall submit a pay data report to the department covering the prior calendar year . . ..” The categories of jobs required to be included in the report are: executive or senior level officials and managers, first or mid-level officials and managers, professionals, technicians, sales workers, administrative support workers, craft workers, operatives, laborers and helpers, service workers.” Id. § 12999(b)(1)(A-J). 33 Id., § 12999(b)(4). 34 820 Ill. Comp. Stat. 112/11(a)-(b). 35 Id. 112/11(c)(1)(A). 36 Id. 112/11(c)(1)(B).
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