States push back on EEOC plan to end workforce demographic reporting A group of eight state and local civil rights agencies is urging the federal government to preserve longstanding workforce demographic reporting requirements, arguing that eliminating the data could make it harder to identify and investigate employment discrimination. Agencies from Illinois, Oregon, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia co-authored an Aug. 24 letter opposing the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s proposed rescission of federal workforce reporting requirements, including the EEO-1 report. For sixty years, EEO workforce data has given federal, state and local agencies, employers, and policymakers information about workforce representation by race, sex, job category and other characteristics. The agencies said the data does not identify individual employees but provides a baseline for examining disparities across industries, occupations and regions. “Since 1966, these collections have been a cornerstone of federal civil rights enforcement,” the group wrote, arguing that eliminating federal workforce data collection would not remove the need for the information. “Workforce discrimination unfortunately exists regardless of whether this data is reported,” the letter continues. “Ending this collection will only obscure disparities in, reduce transparency, and make it harder to identify discrimination, which hurts everyone.” The joint opposition comes as the EEOC also considers ending the reporting requirement for private employers. The commission voted in July to advance a proposal that would eliminate the longstanding demographic data collection, arguing that the reports carry a heavy compliance burden — estimated at over $273 million annually — have minimal enforcement value and may inadvertently encourage race-conscious or discriminatory employment practices. “The proposed rescission of the EEO Data Reports reaffirms the founding principle that every individual is created equal and therefore is entitled to equal treatment under the law,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said in a