The deadline everyone remembers is in May. The one that matters is in the last quarter of the year, because the report is built from a single pay period between October 1 and December 31, chosen by you.
Whatever your systems can produce for that pay period is what you will be filing on. If race, ethnicity or job category data is incomplete in November, you are not fixing it in April. You are estimating, or you are asking people to self-identify under time pressure, which produces worse data and a worse experience.
This covers what the filing needs your HRIS to be able to produce. It is not legal advice, and the specifics change year to year, so confirm the current requirements with the Civil Rights Department and your counsel before you file.
Whether it applies to you
Two separate tests, and either one can catch you:
- 100 or more payroll employees. Private employers at or above that count file a payroll employee report.
- 100 or more labor contractor employees. Private client employers at or above that count file a separate labor contractor employee report, covering workers supplied by staffing agencies and similar arrangements.
You can owe one report, the other, or both. The labor contractor report is the one companies miss, because those workers sit outside the HRIS and often outside anyone's headcount number.
For a company of 25 to 250 employees this becomes live somewhere around the 100 mark, and crossing that line is not usually an event anyone announces internally.
What the report contains
For every employee in your chosen snapshot period:
- Job category. Ten categories, assigned following federal EEO guidance.
- Race, ethnicity and sex.
- Annual earnings, placed in a pay band. Twelve bands, set from federal wage survey data.
- Hours worked.
- Mean and median hourly rate, reported by the groupings above.
The mean and median requirement is the one that changes the character of the exercise. It is no longer a headcount return. It is a pay analysis, produced from your own records, filed with the state, and readable as a comparison across groups.
What that demands of your HRIS
Five things, and this is the list worth auditing in September rather than April:
Complete self-identification data. Race, ethnicity and sex, captured for everyone, with a real path for employees who decline. Gaps here are the most common reason a filing becomes painful, and the fix takes a communications cycle rather than an afternoon.
A job category mapping. Your internal titles mapped to the ten federal categories, decided once and stored, rather than reconstructed by whoever assembles the file. Store the mapping in the system so next year's report starts from this year's answer.
Earnings and hours for the full year, per employee. Reportable against the snapshot population, including people who left after the snapshot.
Establishment structure. Which employees sit at which location, in a form that matches how you intend to report.
Labor contractor records. Names, counts and the data your report needs, obtained from the staffing agencies. This requires asking them, usually in writing, and usually earlier than feels necessary.
The calendar that actually works
| When | What |
|---|---|
| September | Audit the five items above. Fix self-identification gaps while there is time |
| October to December | Choose the snapshot pay period. Confirm the data is complete for it |
| January to February | Assemble both reports. Ask labor contractors for their data now |
| March to April | Review the mean and median outputs internally, with counsel where the numbers warrant it |
| By the deadline in May | File through the state portal |
The filing deadline falls on the second Wednesday of May following the reporting year. Reporting Year 2025 was due May 13, 2026. Confirm the current year's date on the Civil Rights Department site rather than assuming, because this has moved before.
Two things worth knowing
Not filing carries a per-employee penalty. A court may impose up to $100 per employee for a failure to file, rising to up to $200 per employee for subsequent violations. At 150 employees that arithmetic is not a rounding error.
Review your own numbers before the state does. You are computing and filing a pay comparison across race, ethnicity and sex. Whatever it shows, you want to have seen it first, with time to understand it and advice on hand. Running the calculation in March rather than in May is the difference between a considered position and a surprise.
On one page
- Check both thresholds, payroll employees and labor contractor employees.
- Audit self-identification, job category mapping, earnings, hours and establishments in September.
- Choose the snapshot pay period in Q4 and confirm the data is complete for it.
- Ask labor contractors for their data in January, not April.
- Compute mean and median early and review them internally.
- Confirm the current deadline and requirements with the CRD before filing.
We build the reporting layer this depends on, so the data is a query rather than a project. If you are approaching 100 employees, or you filed last year by hand, book a 20-minute call.
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Common questions
Does this apply to us?
Two separate tests: 100 or more payroll employees, and 100 or more labor contractor employees. Either can trigger a filing. The labor contractor one is the one companies miss, because those workers usually sit outside the HRIS and outside anyone's headcount number.
When is the deadline?
The second Wednesday of May following the reporting year. Reporting Year 2025 was due May 13, 2026. Confirm the current year's date with the California Civil Rights Department rather than assuming, because it has moved before.
What does our HRIS need to produce?
Complete self-identification data, a stored mapping from your titles to the ten federal job categories, annual earnings and hours per employee, establishment structure, and the labor contractor records you have to request from your staffing agencies.