Every year since 1966, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) has been collecting workforce demographic data — the EEO-1 Report — to promote workplace equality and compliance with anti-discrimination laws. As stipulated by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees, and federal contractors with at least 50 employees, are required to file this data.
After 60 years of data collection, the EEOC has proposed to eliminate all EEO-1 reporting, at least at the federal level. This change, if enacted, would limit the federal government’s ability to monitor private workforces.
Reliable data
The EEO-1 Report constitutes an evidence-based snapshot of the nation’s workforce, categorized by race, gender, and job category. The report is intended to aid the Commission in assessing compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws, identifying potential patterns of discrimination within organizations, evaluating workforce diversity, and implementing strategies for improvement. The data is also used extensively by statisticians, academic researchers, and advocacy groups focused on diversity, labor rights, and workforce development issues.
The contents of the EEO-1 Reports have changed over time. Most recently, in 2024, the EEOC added “Middle Eastern or North African” as a racial and ethnic identity response option. In 2025, the Trump administration rescinded the option of reporting non-binary employees.
The proposal
On May 14, 2026, the EEOC submitted a proposal to rescind not only the EEO-1 Report, but all “EEO1, EEO-2, EEO-3, EEO-4, EEO-5, and Reporting Requirement Under Title VII, the ADA, GINA, and the PWFA.” [Americans with Disabilities Act, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act].
The details of the proposed rule to rescind these reporting requirements, which have been filed with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, are not publicly available at this time. As dramatic as the proposal may be, it is consistent with past statements from EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas.
In a message released at the start of the EEO-1 reporting season, Lucas emphasized that employers “may not use information about your employees’ race/ethnicity or sex — including demographic data you collect and report in EEO-1 Component 1 reports — to facilitate unlawful employment discrimination.” She also warned that there was “no diversity exception” to Title VII.
What should employers do this year while the proposed rule is pending?
The proposal to eliminate EEO-1 reporting would, if approved, apply only to future reporting. Covered employers should still prepare to file their 2025 EEO-1 report this year. Usually, EEO-1 reporting opens sometime in May for reporting data for the previous year. It is possible that the EEOC could pause collection while the proposed rule is being considered and finalized.
Until the proposal is finalized — which could take several months — covered employers should continue to maintain and report data concerning the race, ethnicity, and sex of their workforce. If the rule is approved and employers are no longer required to submit their annual EEO-1 Report, it would remove the primary justification employers have for collecting and tracking such information. This would introduce some new legal uncertainties to the arena of anti-discrimination law, and employers would need to weigh the pros and cons of continuing to collect such data.
If you have any questions about employment law compliance and reporting responsibilities to state and federal government agencies, don’t hesitate to contact Orr & Reno for assistance.
