EEO-1 Component 2 Data
Under the direction of OFCCP Director Jennifer Yang, the agency ‘reversed course’ last week on their position regarding the utility of the EEO-1 Component 2 Data collected during the 2017 and 2018 reporting cycles. Previous statements made by OFCCP in 2019 indicated they would not “request, accept, or use Component 2 data” because the agency did not expect the data to provide “significant utility.” OFCCP stated last week that the 2019 decision was “premature”, and they would be committing “further agency resources to evaluate the data’s utility.” Given Director Yang’s history as Chair, Vice-Chair, and Commissioner at the EEOC, this decision is not surprising. The EEO-1 Component 2 compensation data is highly aggregated and does not provide enough detail to be useful to the OFCCP in compliance evaluations, however, the agency could review the data to determine which contractors submitted it and potentially use that to refine the list of contractors to be audited.
Affirmative Action Program – Verification Interface (AAP-VI)
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently approved the “Affirmative Action Program – Verification Interface” (AAP-VI), which is a “secure web-based interface created to improve communication and the transfer of Affirmative Action Program data between Federal Contractors and the OFCCP.” The documents in the recent approval indicate the interface will initially be used during audits to encourage or require submission of documents through the portal (similar to how Dropbox functions) and will likely evolve into a portal where contractors are invited to verify they have AAPs in place for each establishment annually. (Though there was initially discussion around requiring elements of every AAP to be uploaded annually, that’s not likely to happen any time soon). Stay tuned for updates – though this portal will likely not be rolled out for a good 6-12 months.
“2014-2018 EEO Tabulation” Census Update
OFCCP has confirmed that contractors must begin using the 2014-2018 EEO Tabulation (census data released this year) as of January 1, 2022. Kairos has anticipated this change since the census data was released in March of this year and is ready to begin using the new data for AAP preparation for all January 1, 2022, plans moving forward. It is worth noting that demographic changes and the Census Bureau’s census code changes may result in slight differences in availability and resulting goals. No action beyond this update is required for Kairos clients.