Wednesday, May 8 is the last day for required California employers to report annual pay, demographic and other workforce data to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD). Employers who don’t submit a required report by the deadline could face fines and penalties — and in their Pay Data Reporting FAQs, the CRD says it is actively pursuing non-filers.
Remember, California requires employers with at least 100 employees — or employers that have 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors — to annually submit pay data reports. The deadline for filing pay data reports is the second Wednesday of May each year, which means the deadline for 2023’s data is Wednesday, May 8, 2024.
If the CRD doesn’t receive a required report by the deadline, it can assess penalties and fines in a few ways.
First, it may seek a court order to require the employer to comply with California’s pay data reporting requirements — and the court may assess a civil penalty against the employer, plus the CRD may recover the costs associated with seeking the compliance order.
Second, the CRD may seek civil penalties of $100 per employee against an employer who fails to file a required report, with the penalties increasing to $200 per employee for a subsequent failure to file a required report. These penalties are also assessable against a labor contractor that has failed to provide required pay data to a client employer in a timely fashion.
Employers must submit data through the Pay Data Reporting Portal using updated Microsoft Excel and .CSV templates for 2023 — neither Excel nor .CSV templates from prior years will work, and the portal will reject these submissions.
Employers filing their reports can use the FAQs, User Guide, templates and other resources available on the CRD’s California Pay Data Reporting website.
Katie Culliton, Editor, CalChamber
CalChamber members can read more about “Pay Data Reporting in California” in EEO Reporting Requirements in the HR Library. Not a member? Learn about the benefits of membership.
