EEOC has Proposed to Eliminate EEO-1 Reporting

EEOC Update-EEOC Proposes to Eliminate EEO-1 Reporting

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has proposed to eliminate EEO-1 reporting. On July 23, 2026, the agency published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in this regard. The NPRM provides the public with an opportunity to comment on this proposal until August 24, 2026. There will be a public hearing on August 11, 2026 about this proposal.

EEOC has been collecting EEO-1 and related reports since 1966. Current regulations associated with this reporting can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations at 29 CFR 1602. Under these regulations, private sector employers with 100 or more employees are required to annually provide demographic data on employees to EEOC.

The July 23 NPRM from EEOC provides several rationales to eliminate EEO-1 reporting requirements. The NPRM states that this reporting

"may encourage employers to discriminate against employees who are not considered 'minorities,' may promote racial stereotyping, and may encourage employers to engage in discrimination to avoid potential EEOC enforcement actions or to address perceived inequitable outcomes."

The NPRM also states that this reporting may be in conflict with the U.S. Constitution and federal EEO laws. The NPRM proposes to "remove recordkeeping categorizations based on race and sex, while retaining the need for employers to keep records of their employment actions generally."

The NPRM does not provide a specific date that EEO-1 reporting would end. If a final rule to eliminate EEO-1 reporting is adopted during 2026, it appears EEO-1 reporting would end no later than 2027. As we reported recently, EEO-1 reporting for 2026 is already at risk because the EEOC has made no move to open the portal that allows employers to provide EEO-1 reports and because EEOC has not chosen a vendor to support this portal.

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas issued a statement strongly supporting the elimination of EEO-1 reporting. EEOC Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal, the lone Democrat on the commission, issued a separate statement objecting to the elimination of this reporting. Commissioner Kotagal's statement encourages employers to continue collecting demographic data on employees.