Ethnicity

Huffington Post -  The Tr ump administration has proposed ending a long-standing federal civil rights requirement, which legal experts say will make it harder for employees to raise concerns about discrimination and may help make the American workplace whiter.

Most companies are required to report their employee demographic data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces anti-discrimination law in every single workplace across the country, thanks to a rule created in 1966. Collecting and sharing this data ensures that companies are complying with civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on protected characteristics like race or gender.

The EEOC proposed last week to end the rule mandating such data collection, known as EEO-1.

“The decision to no longer collect this data, I think, is part of a larger pattern of the federal government stepping back from its historic role of protecting workers and ensuring equal opportunity in the workplace,” said Amalea Smirniotopoulos, senior policy counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, a legal organization that advocates for equality.

The rule promotes transparency, allows companies to analyze their own employment practices and helps the EEOC enforce the law. The data can also help individuals bolster their own discrimination claims.

For example, Bass Pro Shops, an outdoor-focused chain store, was forced to pay $10.5 million after the EEOC found that the store had a pattern of discriminating against Black and Latino men in its hiring and recruiting practices. In their initial complaint, the employees used the data to bolster their claims.