California EEO Reporting: Who Files, Pay Bands, and Penalties

Private employers with 100 or more employees, counting at least one worker in California, must submit annual pay data reports to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) under Government Code section 12999. The report breaks down the prior year’s workforce by job category, race, ethnicity, sex, and pay band, and it is due on the second Wednesday of May. For the 2025 reporting year, the deadline is May 13, 2026.¹ Depending on how you staff your workforce, you may owe one report or two.

Who Has to File

Two separate headcount thresholds trigger a filing. You owe a Payroll Employee Report if you have 100 or more payroll employees total and at least one of them is in California. You owe a Labor Contractor Employee Report if you use 100 or more labor contractor employees total and at least one of those workers is in California.² Both headcounts include employees working outside California, so a company with 95 workers in Texas and 5 in California still clears the threshold.

You meet the 100-employee threshold either by having 100 or more employees during the snapshot pay period you select or by regularly employing 100 or more people during the reporting year. Part-time and temporary workers count.³

Payroll Report, Labor Contractor Report, or Both

The Payroll Employee Report covers everyone on your payroll. The Labor Contractor Employee Report covers workers supplied to you by an outside contractor to perform labor within your usual course of business. Some employers file both.¹

Filing responsibility for contracted workers sits with the client employer, not the staffing company. Labor contractors are legally required to hand over the demographic and pay data you need to complete the report. If a contractor refuses or fails to provide it, document the gap. Penalty apportionment between the client and the contractor is possible if the CRD takes enforcement action.² Employers with multiple establishments submit a separate report for each location.

What Goes in the Report

Every report starts with a snapshot. Pick one pay period between October 1 and December 31 of the reporting year, then count all California employees working during that period. Each one gets classified across several dimensions, and you report aggregate numbers for every combination.

Job Category

Place each employee in one of ten job categories that mirror the federal EEO-1 classifications: executive or senior-level officials and managers; first or mid-level officials and managers; professionals; technicians; sales workers; administrative support workers; craft workers; operatives; laborers and helpers; and service workers.⁴

Race, Ethnicity, and Sex

Report race, ethnicity, and sex for each employee in the snapshot. If an employee declines to self-identify, use existing employment records or personal observation to assign a category. Only when you still cannot determine the information should you report the employee as “not specified.”⁴ Reports leaning heavily on “not specified” invite scrutiny; the CRD expects a genuine effort to collect this data.

Pay Band

Slot each employee’s annual earnings into one of twelve pay bands, using the amount in W-2 Box 5 (Medicare wages and tips). If the employee has no wages in Box 5, use Box 1 instead. The bands run from $19,239 and under at the low end to $239,200 and over at the top; the full schedule is in the CRD’s reporting handbook.⁴

Hours and Weeks Worked

For each employee group (the unique combination of establishment, job category, race/ethnicity, sex, pay band, exemption status, and employment type), report total hours worked across the full reporting year. Hours include paid time such as vacation, holidays, sick leave, and jury duty. Report total weeks worked the same way, counting any week during which the employee was on paid leave.⁴

Mean and Median Hourly Rates

Each group also needs a mean and a median hourly rate. The mean is the group’s total annual earnings (W-2 Box 5) divided by the group’s total hours worked. The median is the middle value when you line up each individual’s hourly rate from lowest to highest; with an even number of employees, average the two middle values.⁴ This is where most reporting errors show up. For the median, divide each person’s Box 5 earnings by that person’s hours to get the individual rate. For the mean, use the group’s aggregate figures.

Exempt or Nonexempt, and Employment Type

For the 2025 reporting year, classify each California employee as exempt or nonexempt under California wage orders or the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Also assign an employment type: full-time, part-time, or intermittent (for workers on periodic or irregular schedules).⁴ Both classifications feed into the employee groupings used throughout the report.

Where to Count Remote Workers

Multi-location employers often get tripped up here. Assign each remote worker to the establishment where they are assigned to conduct business. If a remote employee is not assigned to any physical location, use the establishment where their manager reports. If neither the employee nor the manager reports to a physical site, use the company’s headquarters. A fully remote company with no physical offices reports the address where the business is legally registered. Do not use an employee’s home address.⁴

How to File

The CRD publishes standardized Excel and CSV templates. Populate the templates, then upload them through the CRD’s online Pay Data Reporting Portal. The portal validates files on upload and prompts you to fix formatting errors or missing fields before you can move forward. A designated official at the company then certifies that the data is accurate.⁵

The annual deadline is the second Wednesday of May. For the 2025 reporting year, that falls on May 13, 2026.¹

Fixing a Mistake After You File

Before you certify, you can re-enter the portal and change anything freely. Once certified, the report becomes read-only, but you can decertify and edit it within seven calendar days of the filing deadline. After that window closes, you have to contact the CRD directly to describe and correct the problem.⁵ Filing a week early gives you a buffer to catch errors while corrections are still self-service.

Penalties for Missing or Botching the Filing

If the CRD doesn’t receive your report, it can seek a court order compelling you to file and recover its costs, including attorney fees. Courts can also impose civil penalties of up to $100 per employee for a first failure to file and up to $200 per employee for each subsequent failure.² For a 500-employee company, a repeat violation runs to $100,000 in fines alone, before the CRD’s legal costs.

Starting January 1, 2027, Senate Bill 464 changes the penalty language from discretionary to mandatory. Under the amended statute, courts will be required to impose these fines when the CRD requests them. SB 464 also lets courts apportion penalties to labor contractors that fail to provide the pay data their client employers need.⁶

Who Can See Your Submitted Data

Government Code section 12999 protects individually identifiable information in your report. CRD employees cannot publicly disclose data tied to a specific business or person before an investigation or enforcement proceeding begins, and even then, only to the extent needed for that proceeding. Submitted data is exempt from the California Public Records Act, so the public cannot pull it through a standard records request.² If your report triggers an enforcement action, the CRD and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement can use that data in the proceeding.

1
California Civil Rights Department. California Pay Data Reporting
2
California Legislative Information. California Code Government Code 12999
3
Civil Rights Department. California Pay Data Reporting FAQ
4
Civil Rights Department, State of California. California Pay Data Reporting Handbook
5
California Civil Rights Department. California Pay Data Reporting Portal
6
LegiScan. Bill Text CA SB464 – Regular Session – Chaptered