83 FR 7720 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 36 (February 22, 2018)

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gives notice of its intent to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for renewal of the information collection described below.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 36 (Thursday, February 22, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7720-7721]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-03643]



[[Page 7720]]

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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Submission 
for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Notice of information collection--Uniform Guidelines on 
Employee Selection Procedures--Extension Without Change.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gives notice of its intent to 
submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for 
renewal of the information collection described below.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be submitted on or before 
April 23, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to Bernadette Wilson, Executive 
Officer, Executive Secretariat, Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission, 131 M Street NE, Washington, DC 20507. As a convenience to 
commenters, the Executive Secretariat will accept comments totaling six 
or fewer pages by facsimile (``FAX'') machine. This limitation is 
necessary to assure access to the equipment. The telephone number of 
the fax receiver is (202) 663-4114. (This is not a toll-free number). 
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) 663-4070 (voice) or (202) 663-4074 (TTD). 
(These are not toll-free telephone numbers.) Instead of sending written 
comments to EEOC, you may submit comments and attachments 
electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions online for submitting 
comments. All comments received through this portal will be posted 
without change, including any personal information you provide, except 
as noted below. The EEOC reserves the right to refrain from posting 
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. All comments received, including any 
personal information provided, also will be available for public 
inspection during normal business hours by appointment only at the EEOC 
Headquarters Library, 131 M Street NE, Washington, DC 20507. Upon 
request, individuals who require assistance viewing comments will be 
provided appropriate aids such as readers or print magnifiers. To 
schedule an appointment, contact EEOC Library staff at (202) 663-4630 
(voice) or (202) 663-4641 (TTY). (These are not toll-free numbers.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Oram, Acting Assistant Legal 
Counsel, at (202) 663-4681 (voice) or (202) 663-7026 (TDD).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Introduction

    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or 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 (OMB) 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: 961,709.
    Responses: \2\ 961,709.
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    \2\ Source: U.S. Small Business Administration: Statistics of 
U.S. Business, Release Date 1/2017. (https://www.sba.gov/advocacy/firm-size-data). Select U.S. Static Data, U.S. Data.
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    Recordkeeping Hours: 7,825,132 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 is no data 
available to quantify these benefits, the collection of accurate 
applicant flow data enhances each employer's ability to address any 
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. For the purposes of burden calculation, employers with 15 or 
more employees are counted. The number of such employers is estimated 
at 961,709 which combines estimates from private employment,\2\ the 
public sector,\3\

[[Page 7721]]

colleges and universities,\4\ and referral unions.\5\
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    \3\ Source of original data: 2012 Census of Governments: 
Employment. Individual Government Data File (https://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/12ind_all_tabs.xls), Local Downloadable 
Data zip file 12ind_all_tabs.xls. The number of government entities 
was adjusted to only include those with 15 or more employees.
    \4\ Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for 
Education Statistics, IPEDS, Fall 2015. 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 2015-1 (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016122rev).
    \5\ EEO-3 Reports filed by referral unions in 2016 with EEOC.
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    This burden assessment is based on an estimate of the number of job 
applications submitted to all Title VII-covered 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 1,878,031,768, based on a National Organizations Survey \6\ 
average of approximately 35 applications \7\ for every hire and a 
Bureau of Labor Statistics data estimate of 62,719,000 annual hires.\8\ 
This figure also includes 146,506 applicants for union membership 
reported on the EEO-3 form for 2016.
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    \6\ The National Organizations Survey is a survey of business 
organizations across the United States in which the unit of analysis 
is the actual workplace (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/04074).
    \7\ The number of applications provided by NOS is 35.225 and 
therefore calculations will not result in the same total amount due 
to rounding.
    \8\ Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover 
Survey, 2016 annual level data (Not seasonally adjusted), (http://www.bls.gov/jlt/data.htm) is the source of the original data. The 
BLS figure (62,719,000) has been adjusted to only include hires by 
firms with 15 or more employees.
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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 would 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 1,878,031,768 paper and electronic 
applications per year (as calculated above), the total UGESP burden 
hours for all employers would be 7,825,132. Based on a wage rate of 
$15.21 per hour for the individuals entering the data, the collection 
and storage of applicant demographic data would come to approximately 
$119,020,258 per year for all Title VII-covered employers. We expect 
that the foregoing assumptions are over-inclusive, because many 
employers have electronic job application processes that should be able 
to capture applicant flow data automatically.
    However, the average burden per employer is relatively small. As 
stated above, we estimate that UGESP applies to 961,709 employers. 
Therefore, the cost per covered employer is less than $124 each 
($119,020,258 divided by 961,709 is equal to $123.76). Additionally, 
UGESP allows for simplified recordkeeping for employers with more than 
15 but less than 100 employees.\9\
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    \9\ 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: February 15, 2018.
Victoria A. Lipnic,
Acting Chair.
[FR Doc. 2018-03643 Filed 2-21-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6570-01-P