In a federal lawsuit filed in November, advocacy groups contend that the Trump administration illegally halted pay data collection intended to address the growing disparities in the wage gap. The National Women’s Law Center and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement sued the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, among others, for their decision to block an Obama-era measure that would have required companies with 100 or more workers to report earnings data for employees by sex, race, ethnicity and job category.

Although Title VII of the Civil Rights Act has long required employers to keep records relevant to the determination of whether unlawful employment practices have occurred, under the Obama administration, employee pay data was added to the federal record-keeping requirements. The purpose of this addition was to enable the EEOC to better enforce federal laws prohibiting discrimination and to increase incentives for employers to voluntarily comply with laws prohibiting pay discrimination. Accordingly, on Sept. 29, 2016, after a robust process that invited commentary from the public and prompted several rounds of revisions in response to employers’ concerns, the EEOC approved changes to a longstanding employer survey known as the EEO-1.