California Civil Rights Department Permits Deferrals For Reporting Labor Contractor Employee Pay Data

Recently enacted California law requires private employers of 100 or more employees and/or 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors to annually report pay, demographic, and other workforce data to the Civil Rights Department (CRD) next month, on May 10.

On April 14, 2023, the CRD updated its FAQs [calcivilrights.ca.gov] to permit employers to request a deferral on reporting the pay data for Labor Contractor Employee Reports. The key takeaways for employers required to file Labor Contractor Employee Reports are:

• Labor Contractor Employee Reports must be submitted through the portal by May 10, 2023.
• Employers that are not able to timely submit their Labor Contractor Employee Reports can file “enforcement deferral requests.” 
• Once the deferral request is granted, the CRD will defer seeking an order of compliance for the employer to file its Labor Contractor Employee Report through July 10, 2023.  
• The deferral request can be filed at any time from April 18, 2023 to May 10, 2023.
• The deferral request must be filed through the pay data reporting portal and can only be filed by the employer registered in the portal.
• Deferrals are only for the Labor Contractor Employee Reports, reports for regular employees are still due on May 10, 2023.

Because the CRD can seek an enforcement order and penalties of up to $100 per employee for initial violations for failure to file the report, an employer should seek a deferral if it will be unable to timely file its California Labor Contractor Report by May 10.