The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed a rule last month to stop requiring employers to report the race and sex of employees to the government.
The EEOC, which enforces anti-discrimination employment laws, proposed the change “because it has preliminarily determined that the reports are inconsistent with equal employment opportunity law and potentially unconstitutional.”
Congress created the EEOC in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to do the hard work of enforcing the law to stop discrimination against black Americans in employment. But after 61 years, it’s past time for the government to stop the racial bean counting. From the Federal Register:
“[EEOC] further finds the data collected is not narrowly tailored, is unnecessary to enforce anti-discrimination laws, and at a minimum, that any marginal benefits are outweighed by the substantial burdens imposed on both employers, who must submit these reports annually regardless of any specific allegation or indication of a potential violation of the statutes the EEOC enforces, as well as the Commission.”
The EEOC also determined that there’s an “impermissible focus on ‘minorities’ and women.”
The original purpose on federal anti-discrimination law was to promote hiring based on job qualifications, not race and sex. For over half a century, however, some employers continued to hire based on race and sex, with the focus on favored “minorities.”
This practice became, euphemistically, affirmative action — another name for racial discrimination. Then came the “disparate impact” analysis. If blacks failed an employment test at a higher rate than whites, for example, the test was deemed discriminatory on its face, even when there’s no intent to discriminate.
The U.S Department of Justice concluded in June that the EEOC’s disparate-impact guidelines violated the Constitution.
The EEOC will continue to collect data on race, sex, and other factors in the context of investigations and lawsuits.
Photo credit: By ajay_suresh – Woodward & Lothrop Service Warehouse, CC BY 4.0, link
