What is EEO-1 Data and How is it Accessed and Used?

Equal Employment Opportunity-1 (EEO-1) data is a critical component in equal opportunity monitoring and workforce diversity in organizations. This data is a standard set by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that employers must provide annually through EEO1 reporting. EEO-1 disclosures, created under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, are intended to identify discrimination and disparities in employment practices. It is a compliance survey that identifies employer data by job category, race, ethnicity, and gender. The EEO data collected is then used for statistical analysis to help organizations evaluate their workforce diversity and promote the principle of equal employment opportunities.

Accessing and using EEO-1 data can provide valuable insights into workforce diversity, compensation, and other employment practices. Employers may use data to identify areas where they need to improve, monitor progress toward diversity goals and workforce demographics, and make evidence-based policies. This data can be valuable even outside these organizations and can be used by businesses, academics, and firms for research purposes, ESG assessment of specific companies, and supply chain reviews.

However, EEO-1 filings are incredibly difficult to track down and compile in a usable way. It involves sifting through individual company disclosures and thousands of data points. The burden and labor estimates needed to compare just two companies are considerable as reporting requirements to meet regulatory compliance standards are often extensive. As the only research firm focused solely on DEI data, DiversIQ specializes in providing EEOC data solutions that help businesses and organizations understand and sift through EEO-1 data, such as a free EEO-1 dashboard outlining hundreds of companies’ EEO-1 disclosures. Read on to learn more!

EEO-1 Dashboard

An EEO-1 dashboard is an online tool that enables employers to access and analyze their EEO-1 data, making it a useful resource for employers and stakeholders. This tool offers a streamlined way to review, access, and analyze the data contained in the EEO-1 report and provides valuable insights into an organization’s workforce demographics and trends. An EEOC dashboard can also provide EEO-1 insights across different companies or industries, allowing for company comparisons and EEO-1 benchmarking.

While companies may have their own internal EEO-1 dashboards, this data is often hard to find, and many companies don’t publicize their own insights. In 2019, only 13 S&P 100 companies and 24 S&P 500 companies publicly released their full EEO-1 data. While these numbers have drastically improved over the last few years, the fact remains that this data has largely only become publicly available in the last few years. This makes it hard to compare across companies; tracking down this information as an individual or small business has to be done manually and separately for each company and is incredibly time consuming. Very few established research firms focus specifically on EEO-1 data, and many companies are publishing these reports without announcement, leading to an exploding and ever-changing landscape that can be hard to follow.

To help researchers, investors, and organizations sift through all this EEO-1 data, DiversIQ developed a free EEO-1 dashboard along with regularly published reports and insights. DiversIQ brings all EEOC data together into one EEO-1 platform to help make corporate diversity research and decision-making easier than ever. DiversIQ also offers additional EEO-1 solutions such as specific EEO-1 analytics and EEO-1 research for businesses and organizations, helping provide valuable DEI and ESG insights.

EEO-1 Race and Ethnic Categories

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires companies with 100 or more employees (or federal contractors with 50 or more employees) to annually submit an EEO-1 report disclosing the racial and ethnic makeup of their workforce. This data is crucial for tracking the progress of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across industries, and helps ensure companies are upholding federal anti-discrimination laws.

To accurately report their workforce composition, employers must understand the nine EEO-1 race and ethnicity categories used by the EEOC. The nine categories are: White, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Two or More Races, Hispanic or Latino (of any race), Non-Hispanic or Latino, and Multiethnic.

Each of the EEO-1 ethnic categories are separate and distinct, and each individual must be counted only once and assigned a single category. It is important to note that employees have the option to self-identify, and employers are subject to federal regulations making it mandatory to accurately report all demographic data.

Let’s take a closer look at the categories:

• White: Individuals who identify as having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

• Black or African American: Individuals who identify as having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.

• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: Individuals who identify as having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

• Asian: Individuals who identify as having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent.

• American Indian or Alaska Native: Individuals who identify as having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment.

• Two or More Races: Individuals who identify with two or more races.

• Hispanic or Latino (of any race): Individuals who identify as of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

• Non-Hispanic or Latino: Individuals who do not identify as Hispanic or Latino.

• Multiethnic: Individuals who identify with multiple ethnic categories, but not race categories.

It’s important to not only see the EEO-1 ethnicity categories across the organization, but also at different seniority levels. The EEO-1 report collects data on job categories, allowing companies to analyze their diversity at different levels of the organization. Comparing the breakdown of the EEO-1 race and ethnic categories at higher seniority levels allows companies to analyze not just their hiring processes, but their internal promotion and organization processes as well.

EEO-1 Classifications

To accurately report their workforce composition, employers must not only understand the nine racial and ethnic EEO-1 categories used by the EEOC but also the EEO-1 job classifications available. Employers typically choose the appropriate classification based on the size of their organization, industry sector, and types of job duties performed.

The EEO-1 classification guide groups employees into 10 EEO-1 job categories: Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers, Professionals, Technicians, Sales Workers, Administrative Support Workers, Craft Workers, Operatives, Laborers, Service Workers, and First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers. Each category is further subdivided into EEO-1 job codes based on job duties performed by employees. For more information on EEO-1 classification codes and a full EEO-1 job categories list, visit the EEOC’s EEO-1 Job Classification Guide.

EEO-1: the Standard for Human Capital and Workforce Diversity Data

EEO is a legal and moral obligation for all large employers in the US, and EEO-1 data and EEO-1 dashboards are one of the most critical tools for employers to report on diverse workforces. Because EEO-1 is a standardized way of reporting on human capital data and workforce diversity data, EEO-1 data is also a critical tool for researchers and investors to identify trends in diversity and ensure fair employment practices. These standardized human capital disclosures allow for in-depth EEO-1 analysis and insights between companies and across industries that can help people make well-informed investment decisions.

So how does diversity in the workplace help businesses? A diverse workforce with a variety of perspectives and experiences is more likely to generate innovative ideas, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance company culture. According to a recent report by McKinsey, companies with greater gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies on the lower end of the spectrum. The greater the gender representation, the higher the likelihood of outperformance was. The same McKinsey report found that top-quartile companies for ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed companies in the bottom quartile by 36 percent in profitability. Not only does diversity facilitate diverse perspectives and innovation, it can also have a significantly positive impact on profit and business performance.

EEO-1 Report

Recently, DiversIQ released the State of EEO-1 Reporting offering EEO-1 data and trends that explore the current state of EEOC reporting among S&P 500 and Russell 1000 companies. This report offers valuable insights into how companies are collecting and reporting their EEO-1 data as well as a review of EEO-1 reporting requirements. DiversIQ also compiled the information released in hundreds of corporate EEO-1 reports into one easily accessible dashboard for research and review. Contact us to schedule a demo of our dashboard tool, and download State of EEO-1 Reporting 2023 here!

Russell 1000 EEO-1 and S&P 500 EEO-1

DiversIQ, a leading provider of human capital data and DEI analytics solutions, covers both Russell 1000 EEO-1 and S&P 500 EEO-1 reports. Our free online dashboard has the most up-to-date information about the diversity disclosures of these public companies, all in one place. While these companies are required by law to submit EEO-1 disclosures annually, they are not required to publicly disclose their EEO-1 data. However, transparency is highly valued by investors who care about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics.

Transparency, investors, and social pressure has drastically changed the EEO-1 reporting landscape in just the last few years. EEO-1 disclosures by Russell 1000 and S&P 500 companies basically doubled between 2021 and 2022. In 2019, only 24 S&P 500 companies publicly released their full EEO-1 data; today, those figures are up to 366 S&P 500 companies and counting, with even more committed to future disclosure. A 2021 survey from JUST Capital found that 73% of Americans want companies to publicly share and report on their workforce demographic makeup – and companies are listening.

Read our latest May 2023 Employer Information Report (EEO-1) to learn more about how many companies disclose EEO-1 data and what EEO-1 data is publicly available!