Last week, ASA hosted an exclusive webinar with Adam Romero, deputy director of executive programs for the California Civil Rights Department, on SB 1162, California’s new pay data reporting law. Romero discussed the agency’s recently published answers to frequently asked questions and explained the requirements of the new law as they pertain to both staffing firms and their clients.

The law, enacted last year, requires staffing agencies to report to the state employee data by race, ethnicity, and sex, and also requires staffing agency clients to submit separate reports covering the employees provided by staffing agencies. Because staffing agencies have not historically maintained race and ethnicity data for their employees, the FAQs—at the urging of ASA—allow “unknown” to be reported for those employees.

During the webinar, Romero clarified that this exception, which only applies for the 2022 reporting year, applies to both staffing agency and client pay data reports. The special staffing agency payroll employee report template, which includes the “unknown” race/ethnicity and gender option, can be obtained only by emailing CRD at paydata.reporting@dfeh.ca.gov.