Employer Alert: 2024 Pay Data Reports are due 5/14/2025!

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We like to keep employers informed regarding workplace deadlines and requirements as they come up throughout the year.  California’s pay data reporting requirement is no exception.  This requirement mandates that 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).  This reporting is required under Government Code section 12999, as amended by Senate Bill 1162.

Here are some important announcements for the 2024 Reporting Year:

• Deadline: Pay data reports covering the 2024 Reporting Year are due by Wednesday, May 14, 2025. For more information, see FAQ “What is the deadline for employers to submit their pay data report(s) to CRD?”

 

• The CRD’s website links to the portal through which employers submit their data to CRD (Pay Data Reporting Portal), a handbook with instructions for submitting and certifying annual reports to CRD (Handbook), a guide to using the portal (User Guide), Excel Templates that employers may use to submit their data (Excel Templates), examples of CSV submissions (CSV Examples), and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs).

 

• New resources:
• CRD published a handbook for employers that provides instructions for submitting and certifying annual reports to CRD, including the types of data requested and relevant deadlines.
• Instructions for Excel templates and CSV examples (i.e., template instructions) are now available and provide step-by-step guidance for employers to complete their Payroll Employee Reports and/or Labor Contractor Employee Reports, including data entry instructions, field (i.e., column) descriptions, code values and definitions, and field types.

 

• Updated resources: New versions of the pay data reporting Excel templates, CSV examples, user guide, and portal are available as of February 3, 2025, at www.calcivilrights.ca.gov/paydatareporting.
• Caution: Do not use Excel templates or CSV examples from prior years; the portal will reject submissions based on outdated versions of the templates.
• CRD has refined the portal and templates to improve user experience. For example, in the Excel template, a user can hover their cursor on a column heading to see relevant instructions.

 

• Race and ethnicity category: Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) has been added as a new race/ethnicity category to California’s pay data reporting. For more information on the new set of race and/or ethnicity categories, see FAQs “How should employers report employees’ race and ethnicity?” and CRD’s Handbook.

 

• Changes implemented in prior years remain in effect, including:
• Data fields: Employers must report whether employees worked remotely during the Snapshot Period. For more information, see FAQs “Who is a ‘remote worker’ in a pay data report?” and “If an employee who was remote the first six months of the year transitioned to a hybrid or in-person role during the second six months of the year, should the employee be reported in a pay data report as a remote worker?”
• Race, ethnicity, sex: For Labor Contractor Employee Reports, reporting “unknown” race/ethnicity or sex of a labor contractor employee is no longer permitted.
• Labor contractor worker reporting: In addition to the Payroll Employee Report that all private employers with 100 or more employees (with at least one employee based in California) must file, Senate Bill 1162 added the requirement that a private employer with 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors in the prior calendar year (with at least one worker based in California) must file a separate Labor Contractor Employee Report that covers workers hired through labor contractors in the prior calendar year. An employer submitting a Labor Contractor Employee Report submits one report that covers labor contractor workers at all of the employer’s establishments. Senate Bill 1162 requires the employer’s labor contractors to provide necessary data and information to the employer submitting the report, as well as requires the employer to identify their labor contractors. For more information about Labor Contractor Employee Reports, see Parts II, IV, and V of the FAQs, among others.
• Mean and median rates: Senate Bill 1162 requires employers to calculate and report the mean and median hourly rate of its payroll employees and/or labor contractor employees, by establishment, job category, pay band, race/ethnicity, and sex. There are columns in the Excel template and CSV example for the reporting of this information. For more information about calculating the mean and median hourly rates, see Part V of the FAQs.
• Increased penalties for employers who fail to file: Senate Bill 1162 permits CRD to obtain a monetary penalty against any employer that fails to file a required report, as well as against any labor contractor that fails to supply necessary data to a client employer. For more information, see FAQ “What are the penalties for employers that fail to file?”
• Report only California workers: In a pay data report, employers must report on their workers assigned to California establishments and/or working within California. Employers may not report on workers who are working outside of California and are assigned to an establishment outside of California. For more information, see, for example, FAQ “Should an employer’s Payroll Employee Report include only their California employees or all employees?”
• Aggregate results: In 2025, CRD plans to publish aggregate results from the 2023 Reporting Year. Pay data results for prior reporting years (2020-2022) are available on CRD’s website at https://pdr.calcivilrights.ca.gov/s/pay-data-results. CRD encourages employers to review these results, as well as to assess their own pay data reports and pay practices, in light of California’s anti-discrimination and equal pay laws. Toward this goal, the portal provides an employer with visualizations of the certified data that the employer submitted to CRD.

 

CRD’s support team has provided contact information for employers with additional questions not answered on their website at 1-800-884-1684 or [email protected]. 

 

As usual, Rosasco Law Group can help you navigate the myriad of employer requirements.  Give us a call for any of your reporting or compliance needs.