“U.S. EEOC Proposes Eliminating EE0-1 Reporting Requirements,” by Benny Menaged, Esq., 9-16-2026

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has proposed eliminating the longstanding EEO-1 workforce demographic reporting requirement, a significant potential change for covered private employers nationwide.

On July 21, 2026, the EEOC announced that it had voted to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would rescind the EEO-1 reporting requirement, along with five other EEO data-reporting requirements and the report-specific recordkeeping and record-preservation obligations associated with those reports. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on July 23, 2026.

The proposal is not yet final. Employers remain subject to existing applicable requirements while the rulemaking process continues.
 

The Proposed Elimination of EEO-1 Reporting

The EEO-1 report has long required covered private employers and certain federal contractors to provide the EEOC with workforce demographic information. The report generally collects workforce information by race, ethnicity, sex and other categories and has been a longstanding component of the EEOC’s employment data collection.

Under the proposed rule, the EEOC would remove the regulatory provisions requiring submission of the EEO-1 report.  The proposal would also rescind the EEO-2 through EEO-6 reporting requirements, which cover joint labor-management committees that control apprenticeship programs (EEO-2), certain labor organizations (EEO-3), certain state and local governments (EEO-4), certain public elementary and secondary school systems and districts (EEO-5), and certain institutions of higher education (EEO-6). The proposal would also rescind the report-specific recordkeeping and record-preservation requirements associated with those reports. The EEOC has not collected the EEO-2 or EEO-6 reports for decades, so formally rescinding those reporting requirements would largely conform the regulations to existing agency practice.

The proposal would not, however, eliminate all EEOC record-preservation requirements. General record-preservation requirements applicable to employers and other covered entities would remain in place.

The EEOC states that it has preliminarily determined that the reporting requirements are inconsistent with equal employment opportunity law, potentially raise constitutional concerns and collect information that is not narrowly tailored or necessary to enforce federal anti-discrimination laws.

The Commission also cited the administrative burden associated with the reporting requirements. According to the EEOC, EEO-1 reporting alone imposes more than $273 million in annual costs on private employers and nearly $4 million in annual administrative costs on the agency.

EEOC’s Investigatory Authority Would Remain

Eliminating routine EEO reporting would not eliminate the EEOC’s authority to obtain employment records when investigating allegations of discrimination.

The EEOC emphasized that its authority to request specific records relevant to an investigation of a discrimination charge would remain unchanged. The proposed rule instead addresses the routine collection of demographic information from covered entities regardless of whether there has been an allegation or indication of unlawful discrimination.

Likewise, the proposal would not alter employers’ substantive obligations under federal employment discrimination laws. Employers would remain subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other federal laws enforced by the EEOC.

What Happens Next

The proposed rule must proceed through the federal rulemaking process before the reporting requirements can be eliminated.

The EEOC finished accepting public comments on the proposal on August 24, 2026, and held a public hearing on August 11, 2026. The Commission will consider the comments and other information received before determining whether to issue a final rule.

Accordingly, employers should not treat the proposal as an immediate end to EEO-1 compliance obligations. Until a final rule takes effect, which could be sometime this fall, covered employers should continue to monitor and comply with applicable reporting, recordkeeping and record-preservation requirements.

What Employers Should Know

If finalized, the proposal would represent a substantial change to a federal reporting regime that has existed for decades. Covered private employers and certain federal contractors would no longer be required under the affected EEOC regulations to routinely submit the workforce demographic information currently collected through the EEO-1 reporting process.

Employers should nevertheless be cautious about assuming that elimination of the federal EEO-1 requirement would eliminate all obligations involving workforce demographic information or employment records. Other federal, state or local laws and requirements may independently require employers to collect, retain or report certain employment data, and general EEOC record-preservation requirements would remain in effect.

Employers should monitor the rulemaking process and evaluate how a final rule, if adopted, would affect their existing data collection, recordkeeping and reporting practices.

Kaufman Dolowich attorneys will continue to monitor developments regarding the proposed rule. 

Author:
Benny Menaged
Partner