New Colorado Law on Demographic Reporting May Signal Larger Changes

Quick Hits

• Governor Jared Polis recently signed legislation that requires employers in Colorado to provide EEO-1 data to the Colorado secretary of state beginning July 1, 2027, even if federal EEO-1 reporting is repealed or discontinued.
• The new Colorado law may signal a broader trend of state-level action to preserve demographic reporting obligations as the EEOC proposes to eliminate federal EEO-1 reporting.
• The elimination of federal EEO-1 reporting would create ripple effects across numerous state and local jurisdictions that currently rely on EEO-1 data or report categories.

The Colorado reporting requirement bears some similarities to the requirement for Illinois employers to provide Section D of the EEO-1 report as part of their annual Domestic Corporation Annual Report. Significantly, the new Colorado law states that employers “shall provide the EEO-1 data required” even if the federal EEO-1 reporting requirement is repealed or discontinued. This provision is timely in light of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) proposal to eliminate EEO-1 reporting. The law does not explain how the required demographic data will be collected or if Colorado will create a standard reporting system, but it makes it clear that federal action will not end the requirement to report demographic data to the Colorado secretary of state.

While there are open questions about how this new law will operate if the federal EEO-1 reporting requirement ends, its passage may be an early warning sign of a series of actions by states in reaction to the scaling back of federal EEO-1 reporting. While the EEOC’s effort to end EEO-1 reporting has not been completed, that effort if finalized will impact several states’ reporting requirements. For instance, Massachusetts’s pay/demographic reporting requirement for EEO-1 filers due each year by February 1 is dependent on the EEO-1 reports. To satisfy their reporting obligation, covered employers provide Massachusetts with their most recently filed EEO-1 report. It is unclear what employers will provide to Massachusetts in 2027, if no EEO-1 reports are collected in 2026. Likewise, employers may soon face a question of what to provide to the Illinois secretary of state in support of their annual Domestic Corporation Annual Report if federal EEO-1 reporting ends.

These broader state reporting questions do not begin to address other state and local requirements for employers to provide copies of their EEO-1 reports or collected EEO-1 data. The ripple effect of the elimination of the EEO-1 report would be expected to spread throughout the nation’s compliance reporting system. In addition to Colorado’s proactive approach, it is interesting to note that beginning during California’s pay data filing cycle next year reporting employers will no longer use EEO-1 categories to categorize their employees but will change to Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) coding. While this earlier change may have been focused on providing more granular job category information, it could have been based in part on a feeling that federal demographic reporting was under threat.

In light of the proposed rescission of the EEO-1 reporting requirement and the expected effects on compliance requirements beginning with Colorado, employers may want to pay special attention to this area to continue to understand their compliance reporting requirements.

Ogletree Deakins’ Denver office, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Compliance Practice Group, Government Contracting and Compliance Practice Group, and Workforce Analytics and Compliance Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will post updates on the Colorado, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Compliance, Government Contracting and Compliance, and Workforce Analytics and Compliance blogs as additional information becomes available.

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