State-level equal pay regulation is on the rise.  Many states are passing legislation that protects employees from pay discrimination.  The legislation generally includes one or more topics from below:

• Pay transparency – requirements to post salary ranges in job postings, provide pay ranges to any employees who request the information, etc.
• Safe harbor protection for proactive analysis – if an employer conducts a proactive pay equity self-analysis and takes reasonable action to correct disparities, the employer is protected from state-level pay discrimination claims.
• Pay data reporting/filing – requirements for employers to provide a pay data report or file to the state on a schedule (e.g., every year, every two years).
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Presently, there are only two states that require pay data reporting/filing – California and Illinois.  We’ll focus this piece on the criteria for who is required to file and the general requirements. 

Who must file?

• Private employers in California with 100 or more (payroll) employees or 100 more workers hired through labor contractors (temporary employees) are required to file.

When do you have to file and how often?

• The pay data reports are due the second Wednesday of May each year. Annual filing is required.

What employees are included in the report?

• First, employers need to select a “snapshot date” – a single date between October 1 and December 31 of the previous year, which is used to determine the employees (payroll and labor contractors) to be included in the report.
• Payroll employees reporting to the California establishment and any employees working in California but reporting to an establishment outside of California.

What data are needed to create the report for filing?

• The required fields include the following:
  • Hours worked
  • Pay band to which the employee belongs using wages in Box 5(based on CA CRD standards)
  • Job category to which the employee belongs (based on EEO-1)
  • Race
  • Gender
  • Mean and median hourly rates

Who must file?

• Private employers in Illinois with 100 or more (payroll) employees as of December 31^st of the previous year are required to file.

When and how often do you have to file?

• First, employers are required to register with the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) so that IDOL can send them their scheduling letter.
• Once IDOL schedules your filing, you will have a specific date by which you must submit your data.
• Filing is required every other year.

What employees are included in the report?

• All employees who worked in the State of Illinois in the calendar year in question (temporary and payroll).

What data are needed to create the report for filing?

• The required fields include the following:
  • Hours worked
  • Job category to which the employee belongs (based on EEO-1)
  • Race
  • Gender
  • Pay (W2 Box-5 wages)
  • Hire date
  • Termination date (if terminated, but this is also used for flagging promotions).
  • If an employee was promoted, employers must provide a second, third, etc. row of data for that employee for each promotion or rehire that took place. For example, the job that the employee held on January 1 of the previous year would contain the original hire date for the employee.  If they were promoted, their promotion date would be provided in their termination date field with this ‘first’ job that was held. The next row would contain the new job title, job category, etc. data and would list the hire date as the date of the promotion.