EASTERN IOWA HUMAN RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
Legislative Updates
Here you will find updates from the latest legislation affecting Human Resources.
May 2019
May 2, 2019
EEO-1 Surveys – Pay Data Reporting Requirement – UPDATE
The EEOC has announced that employers must report pay data, broken down by race, sex and ethnicity, from 2017 and 2018 payrolls by September 30, 2019. The EEOC will make the collection portal available to employers by mid-July and will provide training prior to that date.
See March and April Legislative updates for additional information.
May 1, 2019
REMINDER: Proposed Rule by the Wage and Hour Division – Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published in the Federal Register on March 22, 2019. Comments may be submitted on or before May 21, 2019. 84 FR 10900
SEE March 7, 2019 update for details on the proposed rule.
Proposed Rule by the Wage and Hour Division – Regular Rate Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
In March 2019, the Department of Labor announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to clarify and amend the regular rate requirements under section 7(e) of 29 CFR part 778 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These provisions of the FLSA have not been comprehensively reviewed in more than 50 years. Details of the proposed rule can be found here:
The proposed rule focuses on clarifying whether certain kinds of perks, benefits or other miscellaneous payments must be included in the “regular rate” used to determine an employee’s overtime pay.
This Notice was published in the Federal Register on March 29, 2019. Comments may be submitted on or beforeMay 28, 2019. 84 FR 11888
April 30, 2019
E-Verify – UPDATE
SF 516 – A bill for an act relating to the employment of unauthorized aliens and providing penalties.
At the end of 2019 Legislative Session on Saturday, April 27, 2019, bill was still under consideration and review by the Iowa House Public Safety Committee.
EEO-1 Surveys – Pay Data Reporting Requirement – UPDATE
As confirmed by the EEOC on their website, employers must submit 2018 employee pay data for Component 2 of the EEO-1 form by September 30, 2019 (Component 2 data = hours worked and pay information from employees’ W-2 forms by race, ethnicity and sex); and
Employers should still submit their 2018 data for Component 1 of the EEO-1 form by May 31, 2019 (Component 1 = number of employees who work for the business by job category, race, ethnicity and sex.
A federal judge ordered the EEOC to collect 2018 employee pay data, sorted by race, ethnicity and sex by September 30, 2019. The EEOC said it will open an online portal to start collecting the information from employers by July 15, 2019. Employers will be notified by May 3, 2019 whether the EEOC will also collect 2017 or 2019 pay data as the National Women’s Law Center and other plaintiffs wanted the EEOC to collect two years of data.
April 8, 2019
The Iowa Johnson County Board of Supervisors has voted to increase the county’s recommended minimum wage to $10.40 per hour, effective July 1, 2019. Though the wage increase is unenforceable under state law (House File 295, March 30, 2017), the supervisors approved the increase to remain in line with their vote in September 2015 to begin phased increases.
April 3, 2019
EEO-1 Surveys – Pay-Data Reporting Requirement – UPDATE
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has told a judge that it will require employers to report pay data by September 30. 2019. 2018 pay data will be required to be broken down by race, gender and ethnicity on the EEO-1 report. The EEOC has also extended the reporting deadline “to accommodate the significant practical challenges” for the agency to collect the pay data.
Employers still need to comply with the May 31st deadline to submit the Component 1 data (# of employees who work for the business by job category, race, sex and ethnicity). Component 2 data (hours worked and pay information from employee’s W-2 forms by race, ethnicity and sex) is still under legal dispute. Worker-advocacy groups that challenged the prior decision not to collect the pay data have until April 8th to respond to the EEOC’s September 30th plan, and the judge still has to decide on the matter.
April 2, 2019
Iowa General Assembly 88
In early February 2019, a Republican sponsored bill was introduced in the Senate that would mandate all Iowa employers to utilize the federal E-Verify program (2019 Iowa S.F. 243). On April 2, 2019 that bill passed the Iowa Senate by majority vote and now has been messaged to the House of Representatives for consideration. (Now referred to as S.F. 516 by Committee on Judiciary, successor to S.F. 243). On April 3, 2019, this bill was read for the first time in the House and referred to committee on Public Safety for review.
