Agency Information Collection Activities: Extension Without Change of an Existing Collection; Comment Request, 85963-85965 [2024-25087]

Agencies

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 209 (Tuesday, October 29, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 85963-85965]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-25087]


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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Extension Without 
Change of an Existing Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; extension without change.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) announces 
that it intends to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
a request for a three-year extension without change of the information 
collection described below.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be submitted on or before 
December 30, 2024.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods; 
please use only one method:
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions on the website for submitting comments.
    Mail: Comments may be submitted by mail to Raymond Windmiller, 
Executive Officer, Executive Secretariat, Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission, 131 M Street NE, Washington, DC 20507.
    Fax: Comments totaling six or fewer pages may be sent by fax 
machine to (202) 663-4114. Receipt of fax transmittals will not be 
acknowledged, except that the sender may request confirmation of 
receipt by calling the Executive Secretariat staff at (202) 921-2815 
(voice), (800) 669-6820 (TTY), or (844) 234-5122 (ASL Video Phone).
    Instructions: All comments received will be posted without change 
to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information you 
provide. However, the EEOC reserves the right to refrain from posting 
libelous or otherwise inappropriate comments, including those that 
contain obscene, indecent, or profane language; that contain threats or 
defamatory statements; that contain hate speech directed at race, 
color, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, or genetic 
information; or that promote or endorse services or products.
    To read the public comments received by the EEOC, go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for this item. There may be a few days' 
delay between submission of a comment and public posting on this 
docket. The received comments also will be available for review on a 
computer in the Commission's Headquarters library, 131 M Street NE, 
Suite 4NW08R, Washington, DC 20507, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 
4:30 p.m. on days the Commission is open for business. You must make an 
appointment with library staff to review the comments in the 
Commission's library by contacting 202-921-3119.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Oram, Assistant Legal 
Counsel, at (202) 921-2665 or [email protected]. Requests for this 
notice in an alternative format should be made to the Office of 
Communications and Legislative Affairs at (202) 921-3191 (voice), (800) 
669-6820 (TTY), or (844) 234-5122 (ASL Video Phone).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

[[Page 85964]]

Introduction

    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gives notice of its 
intent to submit the recordkeeping requirements contained in the 
Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP or Uniform 
Guidelines) \1\ to the Office of Management and Budget for a three-year 
extension without change under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA).
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    \1\ 29 CFR, part 1607, 41 CFR part 60-3, 28 CFR part 50, 5 CFR 
part 300.
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Request for Comments

    Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 
35, and OMB regulation 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), the EEOC invites public 
comments that will enable the agency to:

    (1) Evaluate whether the collection of information is necessary 
for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (2) Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
of the collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    (3) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information 
to be collected; and
    (4) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, to be 
collected; e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses.

Overview of Current Information Collection

    Collection Title: Recordkeeping Requirements of the Uniform 
Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, 29 CFR part 1607, 41 CFR 
part 60-3, 28 CFR part 50, 5 CFR part 300.
    OMB Number: 3046-0017.
    Type of Respondent: Businesses or other institutions; Federal 
Government; State or local governments and farms.
    North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code: 
Multiple.
    Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC): Multiple.
    Description of Affected Public: Any employer, Government 
contractor, labor organization, or employment agency covered by the 
Federal equal employment opportunity laws.
    Respondents: 887,869.
    Responses: 887,869.
    Recordkeeping Hours: 15,422,941 per year.
    Number of Forms: None.
    Form Number: None.
    Frequency of Report: None.
    Abstract: The Uniform Guidelines provide fundamental guidance for 
all Title VII-covered employers about the use of employment selection 
procedures. The records addressed by UGESP are used by respondents to 
ensure that they are complying with Title VII and Executive Order 
11246; by the Federal agencies that enforce Title VII and Executive 
Order 11246 to investigate, conciliate, and litigate charges of 
employment discrimination; and by complainants to establish violations 
of Federal equal employment opportunity laws. While there are no data 
available to quantify these benefits, the collection of accurate 
applicant flow data enhances each employer's ability to address 
deficiencies in recruitment and selection processes, including 
detecting barriers to equal employment opportunity.
    Burden Statement: There are no reporting requirements associated 
with UGESP. The burden being estimated is the cost of collecting and 
storing a job applicant's gender, race, and ethnicity data.
    The only paperwork burden derives from this recordkeeping. Only 
employers covered under Title VII and Executive Order 11246 are subject 
to UGESP. However, for the purposes of burden calculation, data for all 
employers are counted.\2\ The number of employers with 15 or more 
employees is estimated at 887,869 which combines estimates from private 
employment,\3\ the public sector,\4\ colleges and universities,\5\ 
apprenticeship programs,\6\ and referral unions.\7\ Employers with 15 
or more employees represent approximately 13.5% of all employers in the 
U.S. and employ about 86.2% of all employees in the U.S.\8\
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    \2\ In calculating burden, data from multiple sources are used. 
Some of these sources do not allow us to identify only those 
employers who are covered by Title VII (employers with 15 or more 
employees).
    \3\ Source of original data: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 Statistics 
of U.S. Businesses (SUSB) (Dec. 2023). (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2021/econ/susb/2021-susb-annual.html). Local Downloadable CSV 
data. Select U.S. & states, 6-digit NAICS. The original number of 
employers was adjusted to only include those with 15 or more 
employees.
    \4\ Source of original data: 2022 Census of Governments: 
Employment. Individual Government Data File (https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/2022/econ/apes/2022.html), Local Downloadable Data zip 
file ``Individual Unit Files''. The original number of government 
entities was adjusted to only include those with 15 or more 
employees.
    \5\ Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for 
Education Statistics, IPEDS, Fall 2022, Institutional 
Characteristics component (provisional data). See Table 1, ``Number 
and percentage distribution of Title IV institutions, by control of 
institution, level of institution, and region: United States and 
other U.S. jurisdictions, academic year 2022-23'' (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/search/viewtable?tableId=35945&returnUrl=%2Fsearch).
    \6\ Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Registered Apprenticeship 
National Results Fiscal Year 2021, Number of active apprenticeship 
programs in 2021 (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/apprenticeship/about/statistics/2021).
    \7\ The EEOC has undertaken measures to enhance the agency's 
existing EEO-3 data frame (i.e., roster) of potentially eligible 
filers that was most recently used during the 2022 EEO-3 data 
collection. The number of referral unions was estimated by comparing 
the EEOC's 2022 EEO-3 frame to a list of active unions from the U.S. 
Department of Labor's Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS) 
Online Public Disclosure Room (OPDR) database (https://olmsapps.dol.gov/olpdr/).
    \8\ Source of original data: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 Statistics 
of U.S. Businesses (SUSB) (Dec. 2023). (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2021/econ/susb/2021-susb-annual.html). Local Downloadable CSV 
data. Select U.S. & states, 6-digit NAICS. The original number of 
employers was adjusted to only include those with 15 or more 
employees.
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    This burden assessment is based on an estimate of the number of job 
applications submitted to all employers in one year, including paper-
based and electronic applications. The total number of job applications 
submitted every year to covered employers is estimated to be 
1,850,752,956 based on an average of approximately 26 applications \9\ 
for every hire and a Bureau of Labor Statistics data estimate of 
71,046,000 annual hires.\10\ This figure also includes 136,806 
applicants for union membership reported on the EEO-3 form for 2022.
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    \9\ The average number of applicants per job opening in 2023, 
according to the iCIMS 2024 January Workforce Report (https://icims.drift.click/January-2024-Workforce-Report).
    \10\ Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover 
Survey, 2023 annual level data (seasonally adjusted), (https://www.bls.gov/jlt/data.htm) is the source of the original data. The 
BLS figure includes new hires in both the public and the private 
sectors across all employer sizes.
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    The employer burden associated with collecting and storing 
applicant demographic data is based on the following assumptions: 
applicants would need to be asked to provide three pieces of 
information--sex, race/ethnicity, and an identification number (a total 
of approximately 13 keystrokes); the employer may need to transfer 
information received to a database either manually or electronically; 
and the employer would need to store the 13 characters of information 
for each applicant. Recordkeeping costs and burden are assumed to be 
the time cost associated with entering 13 keystrokes.
    Assuming that the required recordkeeping takes 30 seconds per 
record, and assuming a total of 1,850,752,956 paper and electronic 
applications per year (as calculated above), the resulting UGESP burden 
hours would be 15,422,941. Based on a wage rate of $22.94 \11\ per hour 
for the

[[Page 85965]]

individuals entering the data, the collection and storage of applicant 
demographic data would come to approximately $353,802,267 per year. The 
foregoing assumptions likely are over-inclusive because many employers 
have electronic job application processes that should be able to 
capture applicant flow data automatically.
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    \11\ Burden hour cost estimates are based on the median hourly 
wage rate of $22.94 for Human Resources Assistants, except payroll 
and timekeeping obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 
2023 (see U.S. p of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational 
Employment and Wage Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes434161.htm).
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    While the burden hours and costs for the UGESP recordkeeping 
requirement seem large, the average burden per employer is relatively 
small. UGESP applies to an estimated 887,869 employers, or about 13.5% 
of employers in the U.S., and these employers employ about 86.2% of 
employees in the U.S.\12\ Therefore, the estimated cost per covered 
employer is about $398. Additionally, 36.4% of employees work for firms 
with at least 5,000 employees,\13\ for which the burden of data entry 
is transferred to the applicants via use of electronic application 
systems. Finally, UGESP allows for simplified recordkeeping for 
employers with more than 15 but less than 100 employees.\14\
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    \12\ Source of original data: U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 
Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUSB) (Dec. 2023). (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2021/econ/susb/2021-susb-annual.html). 
Local Downloadable CSV data. Select U.S. & states, 6-digit NAICS. 
The original number of employers was adjusted to only include those 
with 15 or more employees.
    \13\ Source of original data: 2021 Economic Census. (https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2021/econ/susb/2021-susb-annual.html). 
Local Downloadable CSV data. Select U.S. & states, 6-digit NAICS. 
The original number of employers was adjusted to only include those 
with 15 or more employees.
    \14\ See 29 CFR 1607.15A(1): Simplified recordkeeping for users 
with less than 100 employees. In order to minimize recordkeeping 
burdens on employers who employ one hundred (100) or fewer 
employees, and other users not required to file EEO-1, et seq., 
reports, such users may satisfy the requirements of this section 15 
if they maintain and have available records showing, for each year: 
(a) The number of persons hired, promoted, and terminated for each 
job, by sex, and where appropriate by race and national origin; 
(b)The number of applicants for hire and promotion by sex and where 
appropriate by race and national origin; and (c) The selection 
procedures utilized (either standardized or not standardized).

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    For the Commission.

    Dated: October 23, 2024.
Charlotte A. Burrows,
Chair.
[FR Doc. 2024-25087 Filed 10-28-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6570-01-P