In only 18 months, federal contractors and subcontractors with 100 or more employees will be forced to report wage data to the EEOC via the new EEO-1 report, in order to show that there is no discrimination in pay. While this seems a long way away, employers whose data may not be so kind to them could benefit greatly from reviewing (and fixing) the pay disparities now. The “workforce snapshot period” is between October 1 and December 31, 2017. Thus, employers needing to review their pay practices (this is code for – employers whose data would show that females or minorities are paid less than their counterparts) would be wise to do so before the relevant period (one of the payrolls in that window) in order to make adjustments prior to reporting.

Further, if an employer were to be very on the ball, any such adjustments would best be made at the next annual merit increases, or performance reviews prior to the reporting period (preferably before December 1, 2016 – read more on that below). Thus, a little pre-planning could go a long way in not drawing any red flags to those who might otherwise receive a random raise without job justification. Further, if an employer has a bucket of money come raise time, it should use that opportunity to allocate more to those positions that are underpaid and less to those overpaid to control overhead costs. Additionally, employers should familiarize themselves with the relevant pay bands. It may not take much to raise a female employee from one pay band to another, or similarly, keep an male employee at a pay band when on the bubble (I recognize this sounds horrible, but it is reality – the EEOC is looking at pay bands, not actual salary so paying a woman 1 cent more to bump her up a pay band and a male 1 cent less to keep him in a pay band will fall in the employer’s favor all things being equal).

Also, keep in mind that employers would greatly benefit from reviewing the various pay bands at the same time you are reviewing the overtime revisions and make all the changes in one fell swoop come December 1, 2016. As I’ve said before, the December 1, 2016 deadline is really the best excuse employers have to change pay practices without much mystery as to why. There is hardly an employee that doesn’t know about the amendments and is waiting for the change.

Finally, in addition to reporting pay data in 10 EEO-1 job categories, employers will need to report the hours worked that year by each pay band. Employers can find more information on the EEOC’s website here. In the end, employers may be surprised to find after an internal audit that their pay rates are misaligned (not necessarily because of anything intentional) – and so now is the best opportunity to get that corrected and on the right path.