EEOC Opens Portal for EEO-1 Filing
On May 20, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) opened the portal for the submission of the 2024 EEO-1 Component No. 1 Report. All private sector employers with 100 or more employees are required to file their annual workforce demographic report by no later than 11:00pm EDST on June 24, 2025.[1]
The EEOC has a dedicated landing page for this portal, and has provided an updated 2024 EEO-1 Component Instruction Booklet and a host of Fact Sheets, FAQs and other guidance documents to assist with the filing which can be accessed here.
Since 1966, larger employers have been required to submit EEO-1 reports which contain sensitive demographic data (sex and race or ethnicity) on their workforce using 10 job categories set by the EEOC. The report must include the required data on all full-time and part-time employees employed by the company during any part of the “snapshot period” – that is the pay period falling within the 4th Quarter of 2024 (October 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024) selected by the employer. This means all employees who worked for the company even one day during the snapshot period must be accounted for in the EEO-1 report, as well as those who employment terminated after the snapshot period.
The EEOC uses the information submitted to investigate charges of employment discrimination against employers and to publish periodic reports that use aggregate numbers obtained from the EEO-1’s workforce demographics. Otherwise, EEO-1 reports are confidential and may not be made public by the EEOC unless it files a Title VII claim involving such information.[2] If an employer fails to timely file the 2024 report, the employer will be “out of compliance” with their mandatory filing obligations. No late submissions will be accepted, and the EEOC may file suit to obtain an order requiring the providing of the data.
The same day the portal for 2024 data was opened EEOC’s Acting Chair Andrea Lucas issued a message cautioning employers not to use of the collected and reported demographic data to “facilitate unlawful discrimination” based on race, sex, or other characteristics protected by Title VII. She noted in that in her view “there is no ‘diversity’ exception to Title VII requirements,” and she reminded employers of President Trump decision to “deprioritize disparate impact enforcement.” In closing she made a final cautionary observation to employer by saying “you must not use the information collected and reported in … the EEO-1 report to justify treating employees differently based on their race, sex or other protected characteristic.” [See full message here.]
KEY POINTS
EEO-1 reports can only be filed electronically through the EEOC’s web-based data collection application referred to as the On-Line Filing System (“OFS”). Reports submitted in paper submission or electronically outside the OFS system will not be accepted.
Some companies may be required to file more than one report based on structure and size. Companies are only required to report on establishments located in the United States, not in foreign countries.
A foreign-owned company that has more than 100 employees working within the US must file one or more reports depending on the establishment structure.
Companies must include remote workers working in the US in the EEO-1, and these employees are to be included in report for the establishment to which that employee reports, or the location where their manager or supervisor is based. The employee’s home address is never to be used.
Employers do not need to use the same workforce snapshot period in this 2024 report that it used when submitting reports in prior years.
EEO-1 reports require employers to submit the demographic data utilizing 10 job categories established by the EEOC. The EEOC has issued a Fact Sheet that helps explain each category to help assist employers to select the category which best reflects the job function performed by its employees. Here is a link to this fact sheet.
The person filing the EEO-1 report must be an employee of the company submitting the report and must have their own user account associated with their email. This person will be the “Certifying Official” who must certify under penalty of law that “the information, including the workforce demographic data, provided is correct and true to the best of my knowledge and was prepared in conformity with the directions set forth in the form and accompanying instructions.”
If you have any questions regarding your company’s obligations to make this type of report and proper means to do so, please do not hesitate to contact any member of Gentry Locke’s Employment Team.
[1] In addition, the EEOC’s 2024 Manual issued on May 20, 2025, indicates that federal government contractors with 50 or more employees and $50,000 or more in contracts continue to be obligated to file an EEO-1 report even though the Ex. Order 11246, which was the legal basis for this filing, was rescinded by President Trump on January 21, 2025.
[2] Additionally, the EEOC may share an EEO-1 report with the OFCCP, federal law enforcement agencies and state agencies under agreements that require protection of confidentiality.
Photo from bangoland/Shutterstock
