The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on July 21, 2026, that it voted to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking that would eliminate the EEO-1 and other federal race- and sex-based workforce reporting requirements. If finalized, the proposed rule would rescind the requirements for covered entities to file EEO-1, EEO-2, EEO-3, EEO-4, EEO-5, and EEO-6 reports (collectively, the EEO Data Reports) and would eliminate the recordkeeping and record-preservation obligations specifically associated with those reports.
The EEO-1 reporting requirement, first adopted in 1966, currently applies to private employers with at least 100 employees. The remaining reporting requirements apply to certain apprenticeship programs, labor organizations, state and local governments, elementary and secondary school systems, and institutions of higher education.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorizes, but does not require, the EEOC to prescribe reports that it determines are “reasonable, necessary, or appropriate” for enforcing the statute. The Commission has now preliminarily concluded that the EEO Data Reports no longer satisfy that standard. According to the proposed rule, the reports are “inconsistent with equal employment opportunity law and potentially unconstitutional,” are not narrowly tailored to the EEOC’s enforcement needs, and may encourage employers to focus improperly on workforce demographics.
The Commission also questioned the reports’ practical value because employers must classify and report employees by race and sex without any underlying charge or other indication of discrimination. In contrast, the proposed rule emphasizes that the EEOC may request records tailored to alleged violations during a charge investigation. According to the EEOC, the proposal would not disturb that investigative authority.
Cost and administrative burdens also feature prominently in the Commission’s rationale. The EEOC estimates that eliminating the reports would save private employers approximately $273 million annually and produce approximately $278 million in total annual savings across affected entities and the Commission. The Commission also states that, over the last five years, it incurred more than $18 million in federal contractor costs to collect EEO data.
Importantly, the proposal would eliminate only the reporting requirements and the recordkeeping obligations tied specifically to those reports. The proposal would preserve the EEOC’s broader personnel-record retention rules, including the requirement that private employers generally retain personnel and employment records for one year and preserve records relevant to a discrimination charge or lawsuit until the final disposition of the charge or lawsuit. The Commission also intends to incorporate previously proposed references to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act into any final rule.
The proposal is not yet final. Interested parties will have 30 days after publication in the Federal Register to submit comments, and the Commission will hold a public hearing on August 11, 2026. Requests to testify are due August 7, 2026. Until a final rule takes effect or the EEOC provides contrary guidance, covered employers and other covered entities should continue complying with existing reporting and recordkeeping requirements. Employers should also recognize that the elimination of federal reporting requirements would not necessarily affect separate demographic reporting or recordkeeping obligations imposed by state or local law.
Reed Smith will continue to monitor this rulemaking and its implications for employers and other covered entities.