The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has taken a significant step towards dismantling a key system used to monitor workplace discrimination, with its Republican majority voting to end the mandatory collection of demographic data from employers. This move, which critics argue could blind the agency to widespread discriminatory practices, involves discontinuing a reporting system that has been in place for six decades, providing a nationwide overview of employment demographics.
Established in 1966, the system has required private employers with at least 100 workers, and certain federal contractors with 50 or more, to report employee data categorised by race or ethnicity, sex, and 10 job types. These reports currently encompass over 50 million individuals across approximately 73,000 employers, offering a crucial dataset that allows the EEOC to identify systemic issues beyond individual complaints. The proposed change, which entered the Federal Register shortly after the vote, suggests that the mandatory classification of workers by race and sex might violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
While the Civil Rights Act remains intact, the cessation of routine data collection could significantly alter how the EEOC operates. The agency would no longer routinely examine the workforce as a whole but would retain the power to investigate specific employers when its leadership deems it necessary. This shift has been described by some as moving from comprehensive oversight to 'selective attention,' potentially making it far more challenging to detect and prove patterns of discrimination that are not immediately apparent through individual complaints.
Proponents of the change argue that the existing reporting system imposes a significant financial burden on employers, estimated at £215 million ($273 million) annually. They also raise concerns that the broad demographic categories can be outdated and that numerical imbalances might be misinterpreted as proof of discrimination. However, critics suggest these issues could be addressed by updating the reporting forms and refining enforcement practices, rather than abandoning the entire system designed to identify and combat discrimination.
Under the proposed changes, employers would still be required to maintain records of hiring, promotion, pay, and termination. However, the standardised demographic categories that allow investigators to compare these decisions across different groups would be removed. While the commission could still demand demographic information during a charge or lawsuit, it could no longer assume employers had collected this data in a consistent format, potentially weakening the evidence base for discrimination cases. The public has until 24 August 2026 to submit comments on the proposal, with a public hearing scheduled for 11 August 2026.