A number of employers have told us about receiving a new “mandatory” self-identification form for soliciting race and ethnicity, apparently pushed out by some third-party human resources information system (HRIS) vendors via updates to their products. These new vendor forms imply that there has been a formal revision of the race and ethnicity categories private sector employers must report to the federal government, specifically replacing the “Two or More Races” category with a new “Balance of not Hispanic or Latino” category. This is not correct.
Importantly, there has been no change to the race and ethnicity categories that employers must collect and report to the federal government, nor has there been any change to the federal standards that support these categories in the first place. In other words, there is no need to change internal forms, processes, or procedures. Likewise, for those employers that do opt to use these new vendor forms, any individual who identifies as a “Balance of not Hispanic or Latino” should simply be reported in the existing “Two or More Races” category.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.