OMB Announces New Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity

 The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has revised Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (SPD 15).  The changes will impact how companies collect the race and ethnicity data for their federal reporting.

 

The 2024 SPD 15 replaces and supersedes the 1997 SPD 15.  OMB cited “large societal, political, economic shifts in the United States” during the past 25 years including “increasing racial and ethnic diversity; a growing number of people who identify as more than one race or ethnicity; and changing immigration and migration patterns.”

 

Key revisions include a new race/ethnicity category and a one question format combining the race and ethnicity question into “What is your race and/or ethnicity? Select all that apply and enter additional details in the spaces below.”

 

With the addition of the new Middle Eastern/North African category, there will be seven race and/or ethnicity categories:

 

• American Indian or Alaska Native. Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of North, Central, and South America, including, for example, Navajo Nation, Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, Native Village of Barrow Inupiat Traditional Government, Nome Eskimo Community, Aztec, and Maya.
   
• Asian. Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Central or East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia, including, for example, Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese.
   
• Black or African American. Individuals with origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa, including, for example, African American, Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, Ethiopian, and Somali.
   
• Hispanic or Latino. Includes individuals of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Dominican, Guatemalan, and other Central or South American or Spanish culture or origin.
   
• Middle Eastern or North African. Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of the Middle East or North Africa, including, for example, Lebanese, Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, and Israeli.
   
• Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands, including, for example, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Chamorro, Tongan, Fijian, and Marshallese.
   
• White. Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, including, for example, English, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, and Scottish.
   

Collection of detailed data beyond the minimum required race and ethnicity categories is required, unless an agency determines that the potential benefit of the detailed data would not justify the additional burden to the agency and the public or the additional risk to privacy or confidentiality, and therefore requests and is granted an exemption from OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

 

SPD 15 charges federal agencies with updating their surveys and administrative forms as quickly as possible, submitting an Agency Action Plan for complete compliance within 18 months.  

 

EEO-1'S current reporting form approved through November 30, 2026.  We anticipate these changes to not go into effect until sometime in 2027.

 

Compliance will keep the organization(s) updates as new information becomes available.

 

Source(s): Littler, received on April 3, 2024.