The Daily Caller: Republicans Give Feds A Taste Of Their ‘Own Medicine’

Senate Republicans introduced a measure Wednesday which would require a federal agency to comply with the same employment data collection rule it plans to impose on private employers.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the main federal agency tasked with resolving workplace discrimination. It introduced a proposal Jan. 29 that would increase the amount of data employers must submit about workers from 180 to 3,660. The EEOC Reform Act would subject the agency to the same burden it wants to put on businesses.

“This agency is supposed to be protecting American workers from discrimination,” Sen. Lamar Alexander said in a statement. “Instead it’s coming up with an absurd rule forcing employers to submit new pay data on 63 million private sector employees. This legislation would give the EEOC a dose of its own medicine.”

The EEOC rule would exclude employers with less than a hundred workers. The Republican proposal would require the agency to calculate the cost of imposing its own rule on the federal government. The goal is to show the agency firsthand the type of burden its plans to put on private employers. The EEOC argues the new data would help it better address issues like pay discrimination.

“More than 50 years after pay discrimination became illegal it remains a persistent problem for too many Americans,” EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang said in a statement when the rule was proposed. “Collecting pay data is a significant step forward in addressing discriminatory pay practices. This information will assist employers in evaluating their pay practices to prevent pay discrimination and strengthen enforcement of our federal anti-discrimination laws.”

Republicans also warn it would add to the already large backlog of unresolved complaints. The EEOC at the moment has over 76,000 unresolved complaints of discrimination according to the House Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The EEOC did not respond to a request for comment by The Daily Caller News Foundation.