USA TODAY's article "Business groups try to quash federal equal pay project" highlighting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's request to the Office of Management and Budget to repeal or delay the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's new EEO-1 form (which would require employers with 100 or more employees to report employee compensation and hours worked information) mischaracterized the Chamber's position in the matter. Indeed, the form will not promote equal pay because the data being collected — at enormous cost — is useless for that purpose. First, the new EEO-1 form is a massive expansion of the current form.
Business groups try to quash federal equal pay project
The revised form expands the data collection from 180 data points to 3,660, adding millions in compliance costs — which even the EEOC has admitted will have no probative value in identifying discriminatory pay practices or even lead to further investigations. Second, the new levels of data required don't allow for legitimate explanations of pay differences, such as experience, employee work performance and education levels. In fact, it compares dissimilar jobs. Finally, the EEOC is unable to show how all of this data will be effectively protected from improper use or hacking by outside parties. All of which means the revised EEO-1 form is a substantial new obligation that will in fact do nothing to ensure equal pay for substantially equal work.
Originally published in USA Today on April 16.
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