New Reporting Rules May Impact Some Contractors

If your contracting business employs 100 or more employees or has federal government contracts valued at $50,000 or more and 50 or more employees, you’ll soon have some additional paperwork to fill out for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A new rule means that you’ll have to include additional details in the EEO-1 report you must file every year with the EEOC.

As it stands, the EEO-1 report requires employers to provide a count of their work force by job category and then by ethnicity, race, and gender. The revised EEO-1 requires employers to ask their employees to self-identify by ethnicity and race. It also changes several of the race and ethnic categories.

Changes in the Race and Ethnic Categories

The changes in the revised EEO-1 include:

o The addition of a new category entitled “Two or more races”

o The renaming of “Black” as “Black or African American”

o The renaming of “Hispanic” as “Hispanic or Latino”

o The division of “Asian or Pacific Islander” into two separate categories: “Asian” and “Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander”

Changes in Job Categories

The current category of “Officials and Managers” now has two subcategories. “Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers” refers to those employees who plan, direct, and formulate policy, set strategy, and provide overall direction within the company. The second category, “First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers,” identifies those individuals who direct implementation or operations within specific parameters set by executives or senior level officials and managers.

Moreover, non-management officials with expertise in business and finance should now be included in the “Professional” category, while hourly paid supervisors and lead operators who are not on the management team need to be reassigned from “Craft Workers” to “Operatives.” Finally, the “Office and Clerical” category has been renamed “Administrative Support Workers.”

What Now?

If you are required to file an EEO-1 report, your data must include all full-time and part-time employees. Employers must file the report by September 30, 2007, and should submit it through the EEO-1 Online Filing System or as an electronically transmitted data file.

“The revised EEO-1 requires employers to ask their employees to self-identify by ethnicity and race.”