New Pay Data Reporting Requirements for California Employers

by Bartko Law

California employers take note.  Beginning this March, larger California employers must file an annual Pay Data Report that provides a breakdown by race, ethnicity, and sex for employees in different job categories and pay ranges.

What Employers Are Required to File?

Employers having at least one employee in California and 100 or more employees worldwide are required to file an annual Pay Data Report by March 31 each year through an online filing system.

What Must Be Included in the Pay Data Report?

Employers must include data for employees assigned to an office or facility in California, including those teleworking outside of California.

The Pay Data Report must identify the number of employees by race, ethnicity, and sex in each:

  1. Job category specified by the legislation (e.g., executives or senior level officials and managers, professionals, technicians, etc.) based on a single pay period that an employer may select from October 1 to December 31 of the prior year; and
  2. Pay band used by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (e.g., $80,080-$101,919, etc.) as specified in employee W-2 forms.

The Report must also include the “total number of hours worked by each employee counted in each pay band.”  For employers with multiple locations in California, the data must be separated per location, but the Employer can still provide a single data report.

Once filed, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”) is required to treat the contents of the Pay Data Report as confidential to the extent the data can be associated with a specific person or business.

It’s Time to Start Preparing

Employers should promptly investigate whether they have the necessary information to prepare their upcoming Pay Data Report.  To the extent employers do not already have race, ethnicity, and sex data for employees in a single pay period from October 1 to December 31, 2020, employers should promptly conduct an employee survey to obtain the missing information.  View the DFEH website.

For further information about the new reporting requirements and assistance preparing submissions, please contact An Nguyen Ruda.