#BUSINESS NEWS AUGUST 30, 2017 / 11:47 AM / 2 HOURS AGO

White House blocks Obama-era rule expanding pay data from companies

Daniel Wiessner
3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - The Trump administration has blocked a rule requiring U.S. employers to report detailed pay data broken down by gender and race, echoing business groups by saying it would not have the intended effect of addressing wage gaps.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission adopted the requirements last year under President Barack Obama, saying the information was necessary to identify and address discriminatory wage gaps. But the White House Office of Management and Budget in a memo on Tuesday said the rule was burdensome to companies and could pose privacy and confidentiality issues.

The rule would have required businesses to begin reporting the information in March 2018.

Currently, employers must report about 130 different categories of wage data to the EEOC each year. Under the new rule, they would have been required to report more than 3,300 categories.

It was the Trump administration’s latest bid to undo Obama-era policies designed to help workers or unions. The administration has also moved to scrap rules extending mandatory overtime pay to millions of workers and expanding reporting requirements for companies when they respond to union campaigns.

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