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Panel on Measuring and Collecting Pay Information from
U.S. Employers by Gender, Race, and National Origin
Committee on National Statistics
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Govern-
ing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the
councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineer-
ing, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for
the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropri-
ate balance.
This study was supported by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
and the National Science Foundation under a grant to the National Academy of
Sciences. Support of the work of the Committee on National Statistics is provided
by a consortium of federal agencies through a grant from the National Science
Foundation (award number SES-1024012). Any opinions, findings, conclusions,
or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and
do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided
support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-26408-2
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-26408-1
Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press,
500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202)
334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.
Copyright 2012 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2012). Collecting Compensation
Data from Employers. Panel on Measuring and Collecting Pay Information from
U.S. Employers by Gender, Race, and National Origin. Committee on National
Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington,
DC: The National Academies Press.
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ouncil is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine.
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PANEL ON MEASURING AND COLLECTING
PAY INFORMATION FROM U.S. EMPLOYERS BY
GENDER, RACE, AND NATIONAL ORIGIN
John M. Abowd (Chair), School of Industrial and Labor Relations,
Cornell University
H. Juanita (Nita) Beecher, Employment Law & Litigation Group,
Mercer LLC
Marc Bendick, Jr., Bendick and Egan Economic Consultants, Inc.,
Washington, DC
Charles C. Brown, Department of Economics, University of Michigan
Elizabeth Hirsh, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia
Mark R. Killingsworth, Department of Economics, Rutgers University
Jonathan S. Leonard, Haas School of Business, University of California,
Berkeley
Janice F. Madden, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Aleksandra (Sesa) Slavkovic, Department of Statistics, Pennsylvania State
University
Finis R. Welch, Welch Consulting, Bryan, TX
Valerie Rawlston Wilson, National Urban League Policy Institute,
Washington, DC
Thomas J. Plewes, Study Director
Michael J. Siri, Program Associate
v
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COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS
2011-2012
Lawrence Brown (Chair), Department of Statistics, Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania
John M. Abowd, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell
University
Alicia Carriquiry, Department of Statistics, Iowa State University
William DuMouchel, Oracle Health Sciences, Waltham, MA
V. Joseph Hotz, Department of Economics, Duke University
Michael Hout, Survey Research Center, University of California, Berkeley
Karen Kafadar, Department of Statistics, Indiana University
Sallie Keller, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Lisa Lynch, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis
University
Sally Morton, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
Joseph Newhouse, Division of Health Policy Research and Education,
Harvard University
Ruth Peterson, Criminal Justice Research Center, The Ohio State
University
Hal Stern, Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine
John H. Thompson, NORC at the University of Chicago
Roger Tourangeau, Statistical Group, Westat, Rockville, MD
Alan Zaslavsky, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical
School
Constance F. Citro, Director
vi
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Contents
Preface ix
Summary 1
1 Background 7
Legislation, Authorities, and Responsibilities, 8
EEOC Data Collection and Reports, 11
White House Task Force Report and Panel Charge, 14
Pay Rate Information, 16
Earnings Information, 16
2 Alternative Sources of Wage Data 26
Data from EEO-4 Reports, 27
Administrative Data, 28
Equal Opportunity Survey Pilot, 34
U.S. State and Canadian Provincial Surveys, 37
Survey-Based Wage Information, 41
Summary, 45
3 Pay Concepts and Definitions 46
Role of Compensation, 47
Earnings Data Available in Firms, 48
Feasible Definitions of Earnings, 50
Conclusion, 58
vii
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viii CONTENTS
4 Survey Design and Statistical Methodology 59
Options for Data Collection, 60
Fitness for Use, 61
Minimization of Reporting Burden, 71
Human Resource and Payroll Systems, 74
5 Confidentiality, Disclosure, and Data Access 77
Statistical Protection of Tabular Data and Microdata, 78
Protecting Original Data, 80
Further Protection of Shared EEO Data, 84
6 Conclusions and Recommendations 86
Purpose of a New Data Collection, 86
Pilot Study, 87
Agency Capacity and Burden, 89
Measures for Collection of Pay Information, 89
Access to Pay Information in a Protected Environment, 90
References 93
Appendixes
A EEO Report Forms 99
B Study of Employment Earnings for the Equal Employment 111
Opportunity Program: A Possible Role for Administrative
Data from Three Tax Systems
Nicholas Greenia
C Proposed Pilot Tests of Compensation Data Collection 131
D Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff 135
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Preface
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) collects
detailed information on employment by gender and race/ethnicity by job
groupings from all employers, except small employers. The agency does
not collect earnings data from private employers. The only earnings data
collected by EEOC are collected for employees of state and local govern-
ments, excluding school systems and educational institutions, and these
earnings data are limited to major gender and race/ethnic groups for eight
salary ranges. As a byproduct of the agency’s enforcement programs, EEOC
collects pay information during investigations of complaints and litigation,
but it does not use the information collected in this manner to monitor pay
trends in any structured way.
The Paycheck Fairness Act of 2009 (H.R. 12), which did not pass dur-
ing the 111th Congress,1 would have required EEOC to issue regulations
to mandate data from employers to EEOC on pay by the race, gender, and
national origin of employees. If the legislation had become law, EEOC
would have confronted issues regarding currently available and potential
data sources, methodological requirements, and appropriate statistical tech-
niques for the measurement and collection of employer pay data.
At the suggestion of a White House Task Force, the EEOC asked the
National Research Council, through its Committee on National Statistics
(CNSTAT), to convene this panel to review methods for measuring and
1 he legislation was reintroduced in both chambers in the 112th Congress. At this writing,
T
the House version remains in committee while the Senate version failed to clear a procedural
vote (to bring it up for floor consideration) on June 5, 2012.
ix
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x PREFACE
collecting pay information by gender, race, and national origin from U.S.
employers for the purpose of administering Section 709 of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, as amended. The panel was asked to consider suitable data
collection instruments, procedures for reducing reporting burdens on em-
ployers, and confidentiality, disclosure, and data access issues.
In conducting this review, the panel held two workshops to gather
information from data users and experts in survey methodology, wage and
compensation concepts, and other methods for measuring and collecting
pay information by gender, race, and national origin from U.S. employ-
ers. We particularly benefitted from papers and presentations provided by
leadership and staff of EEOC, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance
Programs (OFCCP) of the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice. A paper on administrative sources of pay data was com-
missioned and is an appendix to this report.
The panel is grateful for the active participation of Sharon Alexander,
Office of the Chair, EEOC, and Ronald Edwards, director, Program Re-
search and Surveys Division, Office of Research, Information and Planning,
EEOC, for their unhesitant cooperation with the panel during its work.
Special thanks go also to Bliss Cartwright and Lucius Brown, who assisted
in developing this study and in overseeing its progress on behalf of EEOC.
A large group of experts from government agencies, academia, and
representing various other user organizations freely gave of their time to
prepare presentations for the workshops and enter into a dialogue with the
panel as it gathered information for this report.
The first workshop opened with statements by Stuart Ishimaru, commis-
sioner, EEOC; Jocelyn Samuels, senior counselor to the assistant attorney
general for civil rights, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); and Claudia
G
ordon, special assistant to the director of the OFCCP. Ron Edwards of
EEOC and Pamela Coukos, senior program advisor, OFCCP, brought the
panel up to date on currently available sources of equal employment op-
portunity and wage data. State and provincial programs that now collect
earnings data by gender, race, and national origin were described by Martha
Burk, formerly the senior adviser for women’s issues to the governor of New
Mexico, Faith Zwemke, director of the Pay Equity Office of Minnesota;
and, in the second workshop, Stephanie McCleave, director of the Ontario,
Canada Pay Equity Office. The general counsel of the EEOC, P. David
L
opez, and three EEOC field office officials—Anna Park, regional attorney,
and Rosa Viramontes, deputy regional attorney, of the Los Angeles District
Office, along with Marla Stern-Knowlton, director of the San Diego Local
Office—summarized the current enforcement and litigation uses of the
EEO-1 data currently gathered by the agency. Bliss Cartwright of the EEOC
Program Research and Surveys Division gave a presentation on ational
n
office uses of the EEO-1 data. Overviews of compensation concepts and
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PREFACE xi
definitions were provided by Kevin Hallock, Cornell University, and Philip
Doyle, assistant commissioner for compensation levels and trends, Bureau
of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor.
In the second workshop, the panel heard from representatives of ven-
dors who provided payroll and software products. Karen Minicozzi dis-
cussed the enterprise software offerings of Workday, Inc., Liz Balconi,
consultant, and Michele Whitehead, manager of human resource services,
Berkshire Associates, discussed the software that this firm uses to assist
companies with understanding their equal opportunity profiles. A consul-
tant to the panel, Nicholas Greenia, formerly of the Internal Revenue Ser-
vice, gave a presentation on the availability of administrative data to yield
earnings data useful for antidiscrimination purposes. A panel consisting of
Ronald Edwards, EEOC; Gilberto Garcia, chief, Branch of Enforcement
and Appeals, OFCCP; and Sharyn Tejani, special litigation counsel, DOJ,
discussed issues of data confidentiality and data sharing.
The panel is grateful for the excellent work of the staff of CNSTAT
for their support in developing and organizing the workshops and prepar-
ing this report. Tom Plewes, study director for the panel, ably supported
the work of the panel. Michael Siri provided administrative support to
the panel. We are especially thankful for the personal participation of
Constance F. Citro, CNSTAT director, in the conduct of the workshops and
in the preparation of this report.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for
their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with proce-
dures approved by the Report Review Committee of the National Research
Council. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and
critical comments that assist the institution in making its reports as sound
as possible, and to ensure that the reports meet institutional standards for
objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review
comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity
of the deliberative process.
The panel thanks the following individuals for their review of the
report: Frank Dobbin, Department of Sociology, Harvard University;
Jon A. Geier, Employment Law Department, Paul Hastings, LLC; Kevin
F. Hallock, Institute for Compensation Studies, Cornell University;
Alan F. Karr, Director’s Office, National Institute of Statistical Sciences;
Barbara F. Reskin, Department of Sociology, University of Washington;
and John H. Thompson, NORC at the University of Chicago.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive
comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions
or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before
its release. The review of the report was overseen by Robert Michael,
professor, Harris School, University of Chicago, and Michael Goodchild,
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xii PREFACE
professor emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara. Appointed by
the National Research Council, they were responsible for making certain
that the independent examination of this report was carried out in ac-
cordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were
carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of the report rests
entirely with the authoring panel and the National Research Council.
John M. Abowd, Chair
Panel on Measuring and Collecting Pay
Information from U.S. Employers by Gender,
Race, and National Origin
