The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Legal Defense Fund, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Lead 45 Groups to Condemn the EEOC’s Attempt to Hide Workplace Discrimination

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: [email protected]

WASHINGTON — Yesterday The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Legal Defense Fund, and the Lawyers’ Committee, along with 45 other partners, submitted a comment urging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), to halt their proposed rule to eliminate crucial race, ethnicity, and gender data collections that help identify systemic workplace discrimination.

Employment discrimination continues to limit opportunities for Black workers and other workers of color, women, and other historically excluded groups, and harms the economy as a whole. The EEOC’s demographic data collection requirements have been a vital tool in advancing the EEOC’s mission to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace.

Demographic data collection has been used for decades to inform the agency’s investigations of employment discrimination, to focus the agency’s limited resources on sectors and occupations where data suggests significant disparities, to help employers examine their own employment practices, and to provide researchers, press, and the public with important aggregate data to understand barriers to opportunity within our workforces.

As the civil and human rights advocates stated in their comment opposed the EEOC’s proposal, “The EEOC does not offer a reasoned basis for rescinding its demographic data collection requirements, which are lawful and necessary to identify, prevent, and address discriminatory practices. The EEOC’s weak arguments and refusal to consider alternatives demonstrate that its goal is not to advance even-handed enforcement of Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964], but to obscure data that would undermine the agency’s current divisive ideological priorities.”

Eliminating demographic data collection doesn’t make workplace discrimination go away; it just makes it harder to prove. This administration has declared war on integrated workforces and equal opportunity. The EEOC has become a weapon in the Trump administration’s attacks on efforts to ensure fairness for America’s working people and jobseekers. Without the demographic data collection requirements, it will be harder for the EEOC to fulfill its mission – harming all workers, but particularly those who have been unfairly excluded from opportunities.

The signatories to this comment strongly oppose the proposed rulemaking and will be working to defend all the tools needed to promote equity and fairness in the workplace.

The following organizations joined today’s comment: Actors’ Equity Association, AFT, American Association of University Women (AAUW), American Pride Rises, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, Association of Public Data Users, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Coalition on Human Needs, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), Environmental & Climate Justice Initiative, NYU School of Law (which is not purporting to represent NYU or NYU School of Law), Equal Justice Society, Equal Rights Advocates, Equality California, Family Voices NJ, Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP), Hispanic Federation, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), Lambda Legal, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), MANA, A National Latina Organization, National Association of Social Workers, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD), National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low-income clients, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), National Education Association, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), National Organization for Women, National Partnership for Women & Families, National PLACE, National Urban League, Open to All, PFLAG National, Secular Student Alliance, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Silver State Equality, SPAN Parent Advocacy Network, The Sikh Coalition, UNITE HERE International Union, and Women Employed.

A copy of today’s comment is available here.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

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