The U.S. agency responsible for enforcing workplace anti-discrimination laws has moved to dismantle a reporting system that has required large employers to submit workforce data on race and sex for nearly six decades.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted 2-1 on Tuesday to advance a proposal that would eliminate the annual EEO-1 reporting requirement for companies with at least 100 employees. The system, introduced in 1966, has long been used to track workforce demographics and help identify potential patterns of discrimination.
The proposed change would also remove similar reporting obligations for unions, state and local governments and public schools. Employers would still be required under federal law to collect and retain the underlying workforce information.
The EEOC and other enforcement agencies have traditionally used the data to examine individual discrimination complaints and identify possible systemic disparities. Aggregate information is also published publicly without identifying individual companies.
But EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, appointed by President Donald Trump, argued that the reporting system conflicts with the principle that employment decisions should be made without regard to race or sex.
She said categorizing workers by demographic characteristics could itself contribute to discriminatory practices, including discrimination against groups such as white workers and men.
The proposal is part of the administration’s wider campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that it considers unlawful. Tuesday’s vote allows the proposal to move toward formal publication, after which the public will have an opportunity to submit comments. A final decision could come later this year.
The agency’s sole Democratic commissioner, Kalpana Kotagal, opposed the move, warning that eliminating the data would make it harder to investigate workplace discrimination and could weaken the broader enforcement of civil rights protections.
She said the decision risked undermining progress made by women and historically disadvantaged groups and predicted that a future Democratic administration could restore the reporting requirement.
Civil rights organizations also criticized the proposal, arguing that removing demographic data would make discrimination more difficult to detect and could leave enforcement decisions less grounded in evidence.
The reporting system has faced criticism from business groups for years, with employers arguing that it imposes significant administrative costs without delivering enough practical benefit. The EEOC estimates that eliminating the requirement could save employers nearly $275 million annually and reduce the agency’s own expenses by about $4 million.
A previous attempt to expand the reporting system to include pay data broken down by race and sex was introduced during the Obama administration but was later abandoned during Trump’s first term following opposition from business groups.
