Should Employers Continue to Collect EEO Data?

The following article first appeared in the Insights section of Littler Mendelson’s website. It is reposted here with permission.

---

On July 23, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published a proposed rule to rescind and remove the requirements for filing EEO-1 reports.

Those requirements currently apply to private employers with 100 or more employees and require the collection and reporting of workforce demographic data, including race, sex, and ethnicity.

Following the comment period and agency review, a final rule could be published at any time.

That leaves many employers with a practical question: with EEO-1 reporting poised to end, should employers continue collecting demographic data?

Key Considerations

Here are several considerations.

First, employers should not stop collecting and maintaining demographic information until it is clear that EEO-1 reporting will no longer be required.

Legal challenges could delay or prevent the elimination of the requirements. And even if the rule ultimately takes effect, a future administration could revisit the issue.

Second, the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures remain in place. Although there is some question as to whether the Uniform Guidelines are mandatory or merely hortatory, they at least permit employers to continue to collect and analyze employee demographic data and they arguably require employers to continue to collect this data.

Third, employers must remain mindful of state reporting obligations. States including California and Illinois currently require workforce demographic reporting, and Colorado recently enacted a similar requirement. For some multistate employers, maintaining a consistent national approach may be more practical than creating state-specific systems.

Fourth, collecting and analyzing workforce demographic data can help employers identify policies or practices that may result in discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex, or another protected category. That benefit does not disappear simply because federal reporting requirements change. If employers continue collecting this information voluntarily, they should have safeguards in place to ensure it is used only for reporting and self-auditing purposes, and not in employment decision-making.

Finally, even if employers stop collecting demographic data, statistical evidence will continue to play an important role in many discrimination cases. Regardless of the EEOC’s decision not to pursue disparate impact claims, both disparate treatment and disparate impact theories remain available under federal and state law, as do “pattern or practice” violations based on proof of “gross statistical disparities.” When demographic data are unavailable, some courts allow alternative methods to approximate that information.

So, what are the key takeaways? 

Even if federal EEO-1 reporting requirements are eliminated, there are several reasons employers may want to consider continuing to collect demographic data.

Employers that choose to use that data for auditing purposes may be well served by conducting those reviews through a privileged audit under the direction of legal counsel.

---

About the authors: David Goldstein is a Littler shareholder and co-chair of the firm’s Government Contracting Practice Group. James Paretti, Jr. is a Littler shareholder and co-chair of the Workplace Policy Institute.