EEOC Moves to End 60-Year Demographic Reporting by 100-Employee Firms
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · May 15
EEOC Moves to End 60-Year Demographic Reporting by 100-Employee Firms
2 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · May 15
The EEOC told the White House on Thursday it wants to stop collecting EEO-1 workforce data on race, sex and national origin from large employers, with the proposal now awaiting review and public release.
The rollback would also scrap reporting rules for apprenticeships, unions, state and local governments, schools, and some worker protections, aligning with the administration’s push against diversity programs and disparate-impact enforcement.
A five-year collection contract expired last year and was not renewed, signaling the shift before the annual filing season that typically starts in May; some employer lawyers still advise clients to keep gathering the data.
Former EEOC leaders said ending the reports would weaken discrimination investigations by removing evidence used to spot hiring and promotion patterns, even as the agency continues pursuing other data requests in targeted probes.
If the government stops collecting demographic data, will systemic discrimination become impossible to prove?
With regulators now targeting corporate DEI, is workplace diversity becoming a legal liability?
EEOC Moves to Eliminate EEO-1 Data Collection: What It Means for Workplace Diversity and Civil Rights Enforcement
Overview
On May 15, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed ending its decades-long collection of workforce demographic data, including race, sex, and national origin, from major companies and other entities. This move, outlined in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, marks a major shift in civil rights enforcement and aligns with a broader political agenda to roll back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. By eliminating these reporting requirements, the EEOC would make it harder to identify and address workplace discrimination, raising concerns among advocates about the future of equal opportunity and transparency in the workplace.