Tell the EEOC: Don't Hide Workplace Discrimination

The federal agency responsible for fighting workplace discrimination is trying to get rid of data that helps expose it—and the final decision could come any day.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires large employers to submit EEO-1 reports showing the race and sex of employees across job categories, including management, professional, technical, and other roles. That data can reveal patterns in who gets hired, promoted, and shut out of opportunity.

Now the EEOC is considering eliminating that reporting requirement. The public comment period just closed on August 24, putting the proposal in the hands of the Commission for its next decision.

Tell EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Keep EEO-1 reporting and preserve the workforce data that helps uncover discrimination.

Discrimination does not always come with a confession. A worker may know they were denied a promotion without knowing that women or workers of color are being passed over throughout the company. One complaint can look isolated. Data can reveal the pattern.

For nearly 60 years, EEO-1 reports have helped show where workers are represented across American workplaces. And opposition to eliminating them is not coming only from civil rights advocates. Former EEOC officials, researchers, and employer representatives have warned against scrapping the requirement. At an August hearing, most witnesses who testified opposed ending it.

The EEOC should be making workplace discrimination easier to detect—not harder. Ending this data collection would not make discrimination disappear. It would take away a longstanding source of information that helps workers, employers, regulators, and advocates identify troubling patterns.

The window to stop this is open now. The public comment period is over, but the proposal is not final. The Commission can still choose to protect decades of workplace transparency instead of dismantling it.

Add your name and tell Andrea Lucas and the EEOC: Don't blind the agency charged with protecting workers. Keep collecting the data that helps expose discrimination.

The petition to EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reads:

“Do not eliminate EEO-1 workforce demographic reporting. Preserve the collection of race and sex employment data that helps identify and combat workplace discrimination.”