Civil rights organizations convene to testify in opposition to Trump administration’s push to eliminate collection of vital workforce demographic data

August 11. 2026

---

For Immediate Release
Aug 11, 2026

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

At today’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) hearing, leading civil rights  organizations will testify to oppose Trump administration efforts to eliminate EEOC workplace demographic data collection, known as the EEO-1, which has been in place since the civil rights era and is essential to preventing and investigating discrimination, and enforcing anti-discrimination laws. 

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 11, 2026 – As the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) holds a public hearing today on its plan to eliminate workplace demographic data collection, known as EEO-1, Equal Rights Advocates, the Legal Defense Fund, the National Women’s Law Center, the National Partnership for Women & Families, the American Association of University Women, the American Civil Liberties Union, and The 75 Million Campaign warn that ending this data collection will make it far harder to detect and address discrimination in America’s workplaces. 

Large employers have been required to report workforce data by race, gender, ethnicity, and job category to the federal government since 1966. For the past 60 years, the EEOC has been using this data to facilitate civil rights enforcement, guide evidence-based policymaking, and help employers evaluate their own practices. In fact, this data has provided sustained evidence of workplace discrimination that continues to harm women and workers of color in all aspects of employment, including hiring, advancement, and pay. Without the data, it will be harder for the federal government, employers, and states to identify hiring, pay, and promotion disparities, job segregation, and other barriers to equal opportunity at work.

This is just another harmful piece of the Trump administration’s broad, concerted effort to eliminate equal opportunity in the workplace, bring back pre-civil rights era workforce racial segregation, and push women out of the workforce. 

While eliminating EEO-1 data collection makes it harder to identify discriminatory practices, it’s important to note that the law will not change if the rescission takes place, and employers are still required to provide equal employment opportunities to prevent and remedy discrimination under Title VII. What changes is whether anyone, including the EEOC itself, can see the patterns that prove that discriminatory disparities are happening and address them.

(Statement continued below.)

Take action! Use the link below to submit a pre-drafted comment to the EEOC opposing the recission.

Quotes from Leading Organizations

“The EEO-1 data collection is one of the federal government’s most important tools for identifying whether women and workers of color are being denied opportunities in certain industries or segregated into lower-paying jobs,” said Seher Khawaja, National Economic Justice Director for Equal Rights Advocates. “We cannot fix what we cannot see. Eliminating this data collection will make it easier for employers to hide discrimination and harder for employees to seek justice and accountability.

“Discrimination does not disappear when the data does. Ending EEO workforce reporting would make pay inequity and workplace barriers harder to detect and harder to challenge. At a time when women — especially women of color — continue to face persistent gaps in pay and opportunity, the federal government should be expanding transparency, not eliminating it.” – Gloria L. Blackwell, CEO, American Association of University Women

“If the EEOC moves forward with this proposal, it will make it harder to identify and fight discrimination, and women and workers of color will disproportionately bear the cost. This is unacceptable and we will continue to hold the agency accountable to its mission to ensure all workers have an equal opportunity to access good jobs and advance at work without facing discrimination.” – Lauren Khouri, senior director of workplace equality, National Women’s Law Center

“For decades, these reporting requirements have helped expose persistent unfair barriers facing women and workers of color. The EEOC should be using every tool available to uncover discrimination but instead is choosing to know less about inequality in America’s workplaces,” said Karla Gilbride, former General Counsel of the EEOC and current Deputy Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Disability Rights Program. “The EEOC should withdraw this proposed rule, and companies should continue collecting and analyzing workforce data so that they can comply with our civil rights laws and ensure qualified workers have a fair shot.” 

“The EEOC’s proposed rescission of its workforce data collection requirements is not only deeply harmful, but also contrary to law. If these requirements are rescinded, Black workers and other workers of color will disproportionately endure the consequences. It will be far more difficult for the EEOC to identify and address workplace discrimination, and for Congress to hold the commission accountable for its failure to do so,” said Amalea Smirniotopoulos, Senior Policy Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund. “This proposal represents yet another example of the current EEOC abandoning its duty to protect Black workers and other workers of color from discrimination – and it cannot stand. We call on the agency to immediately withdraw the proposed rule.”

“The EEOC has a mission to enforce employment discrimination laws on behalf of millions of workers who lack the resources to challenge their employers. Yet, under this administration, it is poised to give up one of its most important tools,” said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families and co-lead of The 75 Million. “Collecting data does not cause discrimination. Rather, the loss of EEO-1 data will make discrimination harder to detect and civil rights laws harder to enforce. The proposed rescission is harmful, ill-advised, and counter-productive, and it would undermine women’s progress and equal employment opportunity.”

To request an interview, contact Nazirah Ahmad at [email protected] or 704-290-6869. 

---

Read ERA’s testimony from the EEOC’s August 11, 2026, hearing about the proposed EEO-1 data collection recission.