[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 242 (Wednesday, December 17, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 75151-75152]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-29593]


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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Notice of Submission 
for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCIES: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

ACTION: Notice of information collection--Uniform Guidelines on 
Employee Selection Procedures--Extension Without Change.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gives notice of its intent to 
submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for 
renewal of the information collection described below.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be submitted on or before 
February 17, 2015.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
    <bullet> By mail to Bernadette Wilson, Acting Executive Officer, 
Executive Secretariat, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 131 M 
Street NE., Washington, DC 20507.
    <bullet> By facsimile (``FAX'') machine to (202) 663-4114. (There 
is no toll free FAX number.) Only comments of six or fewer pages will 
be accepted via FAX transmittal, in order to assure access to the 
equipment. Receipt of FAX transmittals will not be acknowledged, except 
that the sender may request confirmation of receipt by calling the 
Executive Secretariat staff at (202) 663-4070 (voice) or (202) 663-4074 
(TTD). (These are not toll free numbers).
    <bullet> By the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. After accessing this Web site, follow its 
instructions for submitting comments.
    Comments need be submitted in only one of the above-listed formats, 
not all three. All comments received will be posted without change to 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information you 
provide. Copies of the received comments also will be available for 
inspection in the EEOC Library, FOIA Reading Room, by advance 
appointment only, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except 
legal holidays, from February 17, 2015. Persons who schedule an 
appointment in the EEOC Library, FOIA Reading Room, and need assistance 
to view the comments will be provided with appropriate aids upon 
request, such as readers or print magnifiers. To schedule an 
appointment to inspect the comments at the EEOC Library, FOIA Reading 
Room, contact the EEOC Library by calling (202) 663-4630 (voice) or 
(202) 663-4641 (TTY). (These are not toll free numbers).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Oram, Senior Attorney, at 
(202) 663-4681 (voice), or Thomas J. Schlageter, Assistant Legal 
Counsel, (202) 663-4668 (voice) or (202) 663-7026 (TDD).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Introduction

    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) 
gives notice of its intent to submit the recordkeeping requirements 
contained in the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures 
(UGESP or Uniform Guidelines) \1\ to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for a three-year extension without change under the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). Concurrent with this notice, 
EEOC is requesting OMB approval for a brief emergency extension of the 
UGESP recordkeeping requirement to begin immediately after the current 
December 31, 2014 expiration date.
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    \1\ 29 CFR. part 1607, 41 CFR part 60-3, 28 CFR part 50, 5 CFR 
part 300.
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Request for Comments

    Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 
35, and OMB regulation 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), the EEOC invites public 
comments that will enable the agency to:
    (1) Evaluate whether the collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (2) Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of 
the collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    (3) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and
    (4) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submission of responses.

Overview of Collection

    Collection Title: Recordkeeping Requirements of the Uniform 
Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, 29 CFR part 1607, 41 CFR 
part 60-3, 28 CFR part 50, 5 CFR part 300.
    OMB Number: 3046-0017.
    Type of Respondent: Businesses or other institutions; Federal 
Government; State or local governments and farms.
    North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code: 
Multiple.
    Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC): Multiple.
    Description of Affected Public: Any employer, Government 
contractor, labor organization, or employment agency covered by the 
Federal equal employment opportunity laws.
    Respondents: 914,843.
    Responses: \2\ 914,843.
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    \2\ The number of respondents is equal to the number of 
responses (i.e. one response per person).
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    Recordkeeping Hours: 6,372,498 per year.
    Number of Forms: None.
    Form Number: None.
    Frequency of Report: None.
    Abstract: The Uniform Guidelines provide fundamental guidance for 
all Title VII-covered employers about the use of employment selection 
procedures. The records addressed by UGESP are used by respondents to 
ensure that they are complying with Title VII and Executive Order 
11246; by the Federal agencies that enforce Title VII and Executive 
Order 11246 to investigate, conciliate, and litigate charges of 
employment discrimination; and by complainants to establish violations 
of Federal equal employment opportunity laws. While there is no data 
available to quantify these benefits, the collection of accurate 
applicant flow data enhances each employer's ability to address any 
deficiencies in recruitment and selection processes, including 
detecting barriers to equal employment opportunity.
    Burden Statement: There are no reporting requirements associated 
with UGESP. The burden being estimated is the cost of collecting and 
storing a job applicant's gender, race, and ethnicity data. The only 
paperwork burden derives from this recordkeeping.
    Only employers covered under Title VII and Executive Order 11246 
are subject to UGESP. For the purpose of burden calculation, employers 
with 15 or more employees are counted. The number of such employers is 
estimated at 914,843, which combines estimates

[[Page 75152]]

from private employment,\3\ the public sector,\4\ colleges and 
universities,\5\ and referral unions.\6\
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    \3\ Source: Census Bureau 2011 County Business Patterns: Number 
of Firms, Number of Establishments, Employment, and Annual Payroll 
by Enterprise Employment Size for the United States and States, 
Totals: 2011, Release Date 12.13. (https://www.census.gov/econ/susb/.) Select U.S. & states, Totals. Downloaded on October 2, 2014.
    \4\ Source of original data: 2012 Census of Governments: 
Employment. Individual Government Data File (http://www.census.gov/govs/apes/), Local Downloadable Data zip file 12ind_all_tabs.xls. 
The original number of government entities was adjusted to only 
include those with 15 or more employees.
    \5\ Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for 
Education Statistics, IPEDS, Fall 2013. Number and percentage 
distribution of Title IV institutions, by control of institution, 
level of institution, and region: United States and other U.S. 
jurisdictions, academic year 2013-1(http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2014066rev).
    \6\ EEO-3 Reports filed by referral unions in 2012 with EEOC.
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    This burden assessment is based on an estimate of the number of job 
applications submitted to all Title VII-covered employers in one year, 
including paper-based and electronic applications. The total number of 
job applications submitted every year to covered employers is estimated 
to be 1,529,399,487, based on a National Organizations Survey \7\ 
average of approximately 35 applications \8\ for every hire and a 
Bureau of Labor Statistics data estimate of 43,414,608 annual hires.\9\ 
This figure also includes 119,920 applicants for union membership 
reported on the EEO-3 form for 2012.
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    \7\ The National Organizations Survey is a survey of business 
organizations across the United States in which the unit of analysis 
is the actual workplace (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/04074).
    \8\ The number of applications provided by NOS is 35.225 and 
therefore calculations will not result in the same total amount due 
to rounding.
    \9\ Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover 
Survey, 2013 annual level data (Not seasonally adjusted), (http://www.bls.gov/jlt/data.htm) is the source of the original data. The 
BLS figure (50,718,000) has been adjusted to only include hires by 
firms with 15 or more employees.
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    The employer burden associated with collecting and storing 
applicant demographic data is based on the following assumptions: 
Applicants would need to be asked to provide three pieces of 
information--sex, race/ethnicity, and an identification number (a total 
of approximately 13 keystrokes); the employer would need to transfer 
information received to a database either manually or electronically; 
and the employer would need to store the 13 characters of information 
for each applicant. Recordkeeping costs and burden are assumed to be 
the time cost associated with entering 13 keystrokes.
    Assuming that the required recordkeeping takes 30 seconds per 
record, and assuming a total of 1,529,399,487 paper and electronic 
applications per year (as calculated above), the resulting UGESP burden 
hours would be 6,372,498. Based on a wage rate of $15.48 per hour for 
the individuals entering the data, the collection and storage of 
applicant demographic data would come to approximately $98,646,267 per 
year for Title VII-covered employers. We expect that the foregoing 
assumptions are over-inclusive, because many employers have electronic 
job application processes that should be able to capture applicant flow 
data automatically.
    While the burden hours and costs for the UGESP recordkeeping 
requirement seem very large, the average burden per employer is 
relatively small. We estimate that UGESP applies to 914,843 employers. 
Therefore the cost per covered employer is less than $108 ($98,646,267 
divided by 914,843 is equal to $107.87). Additionally UGESP allows for 
simplified recordkeeping for employers with more than 15 but less than 
100 employees.\10\
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    \10\ See 29 CFR 1607.15A(1): Simplified recordkeeping for users 
with less than 100 employees. In order to minimize recordkeeping 
burdens on employers who employ one hundred (100) or fewer 
employees, and other users not required to file EEO-1, et seq., 
reports, such users may satisfy the requirements of this section 15 
if they maintain and have available records showing, for each year: 
(a) The number of persons hired, promoted, and terminated for each 
job, by sex, and where appropriate by race and national origin; 
(b)The number of applicants for hire and promotion by sex and where 
appropriate by race and national origin; and (c) The selection 
procedures utilized (either standardized or not standardized).

    Dated: December 11, 2014.
Jenny R. Yang,
Chair, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
[FR Doc. 2014-29593 Filed 12-16-14; 8:45 am]
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