2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Data Collection Opening on October 31, 2023, and Due by December 5, 2023
On October 31, 2023, the 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection will open along with the EEO-1 online Filer Support Message Center (aka filer help desk) to assist filers with questions about the 2022 collection. The deadline to file the 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 report is December 5, 2023.
All updates about the 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection, including the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Instruction Booklet and the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Data File Upload Specifications, will be posted to https://eeocdata.org/eeo1 when they’re available. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it anticipates posting the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Instruction Booklet for filers on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, and the updated 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Data File Upload Specifications for filers on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
The EEO-1 Component 1 report is a mandatory annual data collection that requires all private employers with 100 or more employees, and federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting certain criteria, to submit demographic workforce data, including data by job category and sex and race or ethnicity to the EEOC.
ACA Affordability Threshold Decreases for 2024 Plan Year
On August 23, 2023, the IRS announced that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affordability threshold will be 8.39%, reduced from 9.12% in 2023, for plan years beginning in calendar year 2024 (after December 31, 2023). Under the ACA’s Employer Shared Responsibility provision (play or pay), large employers (those with an average of 50 full-time employees—including full-time equivalent employees—during the prior year) must either:
- Offer most full-time employees and their children minimum essential, minimum value coverage that is affordable at the employee-only level of coverage; or
- Make an employer shared responsibility payment to the IRS if at least one of their full-time employees purchases coverage on a Health Insurance Marketplace and receives a premium tax credit because their employer did not offer qualifying coverage.
Under the new threshold, to be affordable for the 2024 plan year, the employee’s required contribution to the plan cannot be more than 8.39% of their income.
Read more about affordability and minimum value on the IRS’s Questions and Answers on Employer Shared Responsibility Provisions Under the Affordable Care Act page.
IRS Revenue Procedure 2023-29 was published in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2023-37 on September 11, 2023.
Federal DOL Announces & Publishes “Proposed” Rule to Increase Exempt Employee Minimum Salaries
On September 8, 2023, the federal Department of Labor (DOL) announced the release of its “proposed” rule to increase the minimum salary required for certain employees to be classified as exempt from minimum wage and overtime, which included the publication of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees. While we don’t usually report on proposed rules because they have a tendency to change—and often the effective date is distant and unknown—we wanted to provide some information given the potential significance of this rule.
Given the potential significance of this rule, we wanted to provide some information even though it is only a “proposed” rule:
- Currently, executive, administrative, and professional employees must be paid at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year) to be properly classified as exempt. This grouping of exemptions is often referred to collectively as “EAP.” The “proposed” rule, if adopted as-is, would increase the salary threshold to require that EAP employees be paid at least $1,059 per week ($55,068 per year) to be classified as exempt.
- Presently, employees who are exempt under the highly compensated employee (HCE) exemption, which has its own specific criteria, must be paid at least $107,432 per year. The “proposed” rule, if adopted as-is, would increase this amount to require that HCE employees be paid at least $143,988 per year to be classified as exempt.
- Lastly, the “proposed” rule, if adopted in its current form, would implement automatic updates to the EAP salary level and HCE total annual compensation requirement every three years.
Impacts
While it may be a bit early to start thinking about the impacts of this rule change, employers that want to maximize planning time should consider the following:
- You may need to reclassify many employees as nonexempt—this will bring the expected administrative hassle. This will include training these employees in the ways of nonexempt (e.g., they’ll need to log their time, take lunches and breaks, and observe your overtime policies).
- If you have exempt employees who make well below the “proposed” minimum salary (and therefore won’t be getting a raise to bring them up to the new threshold), and they’re regularly working more than 40 hours per week, overtime pay will need to be budgeted.
- If paying overtime is not desirable, you may need to redistribute work, find other efficiencies, or potentially alter aspects of your business.
As is mandated, if a state law requires higher minimum salaries than what is or will be required by the federal rule, the state minimums must be followed.
Resourcing Edge will provide additional information as it becomes available.
