A Washington federal judge on Tuesday scolded government attorneys for the delay in implementing a court order that reinstated Obama-era rules requiring employers to provide new workforce compensation data on annual reports.

At a hearing, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan told U.S. Justice Department lawyers and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that they must provide her a timeline on their plans to comply with her March 4 order.

Chutkan's ruling this month forces employers with more than 100 workers to provide a breakdown of compensation data based on gender, race and ethnicity. Business advocates had resisted the new pay-data collection rule as burdensome and potentially open to misinterpretation.