Remarks of Deidre Flippen, Director of the Office of Research, Information and Planning

Meeting of November 16, 2005, Washington D.C. on Operations in Wake of Hurricane Katrina and Revisions to EEO-1 Report

Good morning Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair and Commissioners. My name is Deidre Flippen. I am the Director of the Office of Research, Information and Planning. I am here to summarize the final proposed changes to the EEO-1 Employer Information Report that are before you for approval.

After consultation with the Office Of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), on June 11, 2003, EOC published proposed changes to the EEO-1 Employer Information Report. These changes were required in order to comply with government wide revised standards on race and ethnicity issued by the Office of Management and Budget in October 1997, and revision of the EEO-1 job category definitions to comply with the revised OMB standards on Standard Occupational Classification of 1999 and the 2000 census occupational categories. Consequently, EEOC proposed changes to the ethnic and racial categories on the EEO-1 Report and also to the job categories. The Commission held a public hearing on October 29, 2003, to give the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed changes.

The revisions proposed in the June 2003, Notice are as follows:

• Added a new racial category titled “Two or more races not Hispanic or Latino” by gender;
• Separated “Asians” from “ Pacific Islanders”;
• Added a new category titled “Asians not Hispanic or Latino
• Added a new category titled “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander not Hispanic or Latino”;
• Changed “American Indian or Alaskan Native” to “American Indian or Alaska Native not Hispanic or Latino”.
• Renamed “Black” as “Black or African American not Hispanic or Latino”;
• Renamed “Hispanic” as “Hispanic or Latino”;
• Strongly encouraged employers to use self-reporting rather than visual identification;
• Extended the EEO-1 data collection by race and ethnicity to the State of Hawaii; and
• Changed the EEO-1 job categories by expanding the current single “Officials and Managers” category into three sub-categories: 1) Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers, 2) Mid-Level Officials and Managers; and 3) Lower-Level Officials and Managers.

The proposed revised EEO-1 Report form seeks to balance several competing interests. These are to obtain data to support the EEOC and OFCCP in enforcing Title VII and Executive Order 11246; address changing United States demographics; comply with new OMB standards; and minimize the reporting burden on employers.

The changes from the June 2003 Notice in the final proposed Notice before the Commission are as follows:

• Change the proposed Officials and Managers’ three sub-categories of Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers, Mid-Level Officials and Managers and Lower-Level Officials and Managers to two sub-categories titled: 1) Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers; and 2) First/Mid Level Officials and Managers;
• Revise the EEO-1 Instruction booklet, which provides guidance to employers on completing the EEO-1 Form, by removing non-managerial business and financial occupations from the Officials and Managers job category and adding them to the Professionals job category;
• Remove the “2000 Census Occupational Codes” with each EEO-1 job category grouping in the EEO-1 Instruction Booklet. However, the proposal makes it clear that the EEOC will continue its past practice of producing a “Job Classification Guide” for employers with guidance about the range of census occupational codes for each broad EEO-1 job category and the Census/EEO-1 crosswalk;
• Keep the order in which the EEO-1 job categories appear on the EEO-1 Form the same as on the current form;
• Eliminate the “suggested questionnaire” for re-surveying employer work forces;
• Reduce the annual respondent burden hours from 644,320 to 599,000 or by 7.0 percent. and
• Change the effective date for use of the EEO-1 form from 2005 to 2007.

The EEO-1 report is a valuable tool in the Commission’s enforcement activities and in conducting research. Other panel members will describe how EEO-1 data and information is used in our enforcement activities. Both internally and in academic settings, the EEO-1 is used to conduct various types of research. The Office of Research, Information and Planning has published a number of research reports by various industries and occupational categories that have been well received by employers and the public. For example, “Women of Color: Their Employment Status in the Private Sector”, “Diversity in Law Firms”, “Retail Distribution Centers: How New Business Processes Impact Minority Labor Markets”, “High End Department Stores, Their Access to and Use of Diverse Labor Markets” and Glass Ceilings: The Status of Women as Officials and Managers in the Private Sector”. In addition, we publish and distribute annually “Job Patterns for Minorities and Women” which provides aggregate EEO-1 data by industry and geographic areas and the biennial Indicators of Equal Employment Opportunity-Status and Trends which provides trends by job category, gender, race/ethnicity, industry and geographic area. With the exception of the Indicators Report, these reports are available to the public on our external web site at www.eeoc.gov. The Indicators Report is distributed and available upon request. EEO-1 data is also provided to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and approximately 80 state and local Fair Employment Practices Agencies. Requests are also received from employer groups, the Media and the Government Accountability Office for articles and studies.

This page was last modified on November 17, 2005.