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The Trump Administration is moving to end a 60-year-old requirement for employers to submit demographic data on their workforces to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. 

Eliminating the requirement would make less information available to the public about demographic trends—such as how many women or people belonging to racial and ethnic minorities hold top positions at U.S. companies—and could impact efforts to protect workers against discriminatory practices. 

The Republican-majority EEOC on Tuesday voted 2-1 to eliminate the requirement. A 30-day public comment period for the proposal will follow before it moves to final approval.

Since 1966, the agency has mandated that companies with at least 100 employees, or federal contractors with 50 or more employees, must file an EEO-1 form each year. In the form, companies must report the number of male and female workers in 10 broad job categories, as well as the number of workers of different races and ethnicities. 

The agency argued in the proposal that the demographic data collected under the requirement “is unnecessary to enforce anti-discrimination laws” and that the “marginal benefits are outweighed by the substantial burdens imposed” on employers and the Commission itself. 

It went on to say that the requirement “may have the unintended effect of promoting, rather than reducing, discrimination because of the mistaken view that it is permissible to take race and sex-based actions to correct statistical imbalances.” The Commission argued that its own “investigative authority” is a “more reliable, narrowly tailored, and cost-effective tool.”

The EEOC’s move to end the data collection requirement aligns with President Donald Trump’s broader push to eliminate offices, programs, and laws that support and enforce diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. 

“It may promote racial stereotyping at work, and it may encourage employers to engage in discrimination,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said of the requirement during a hearing prior to the vote.

Lucas has described her vision for the agency as “a more conservative view of civil rights" and has in the past encouraged white men to report discrimination against them. She has also expressed her view that “hiring workers based on their merit, excellence, and character — not skin color or sex — is the right thing to do and benefits employers and employees alike.”

Kalpana Kotagal, the EEOC’s lone Democratic commissioner and the sole dissenting vote, said the agency was “kneecapping its ability to protect workers” and considering “whether to turn back time to a period before the civil rights movement.”

The move has also drawn backlash from civil rights groups.

Deborah Vagins, senior vice president at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued a statement on Tuesday, calling the EEOC a “mouthpiece for Trump’s attacks on having a workforce reflective of America.” 

“If you cannot measure problems, you cannot address them, which is exactly why this EEOC is proposing to stop demographic data collections,” she said. “Discrimination does not go away when you don’t assess it; it just makes it harder to prove.”

The National Women’s Law Center in a statement on Tuesday called the move the EEOC’s “latest attack on civil rights,” saying eliminating the data collection requirement would make it easier for the Commission to “justify enforcement priorities driven by politics rather than facts.” 

Earlier this year, the EEOC did not announce the opening of the 2026 demographic data collection cycle in May, which raised concerns among lawmakers about whether the practice would be enforced. The Commission had also that month submitted a draft proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to rescind the EEO-1 requirement. 

In response, 10 Democrats led by Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York wrote a letter to Lucas urging her and the Commission to “proceed without delay and to provide transparency regarding its plans” for the annual collection of demographic data. 

“The timely and consistent collection of EEO-1 data is critical to enforcing our nation’s civil rights laws and ensuring equal opportunity in the workplace,” the group wrote. 

The EEOC processed over 88,000 discrimination charges in fiscal year 2025 and resolved over 90,000. During that time, the Commission secured $660 million for over 17,000 victims of workplace discrimination. 

The agency has estimated that since the establishment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on race, gender, religion, and other factors, it has recovered over $11 billion for victims of such discrimination.