California Pay Data Report

This article provides an overview of the Pay Data Report, and instructions to update and import data if needed.

NEW FOR 2023 REPORTING

  1. New Due Date

    • The due date for pay data reports covering the reporting year 2023 is May 18, 2024. There is no deferral period.

  1. Mean and Median Data

    • The report must include the mean and median hourly rate for each group of employees. Refer to Section 1.3 Overview of the California Pay Data Report's Content for a description of how to calculate these means and medians.

  1. Two Report Types/Employers Must Report Workers Hired Through Labor Contractors

    • If an employer has over 100 workers hired through a labor contractor, these workers are required to be reported separately from the employer's payroll employees.

      • Labor contractor employees are reported in one report type: Labor Contractor Report.

      • Payroll employees are reported in the other report type: Payroll Employee Report.

  1. No Reporting of Non-California Employees

    • When reporting to CRD, employers must include their employees assigned to California establishments and/or working within California. Unlike in years past, employers may not report employees who are working outside of California and are assigned to an establishment outside of California.

  1. Updated Portal

    • The portal has been updated in several ways, including to accommodate the reporting of Labor Contractor Employee Reports and clarifying the steps for certifying the report after uploading an Excel/CSV file into the portal. Refer to Section 5 - Submitting the Pay Data Report for detailed instructions.

  1. Graphs Generated for Certified Pay Data Reports

    • The portal will generate a graphic representation of the employer's data in order to assist employers in evaluating their pay practices in light of equal pay and anti-discrimination laws. These graphs can be downloaded and emailed as PDFs.

The Paydata reports in Namely Payroll have been updated to include the Mean and Median Data and the reporting of Non-California employees has been removed.

 

BACKGROUND

The State of California requires that employers must file an annual Pay Data Report with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) if they meet the following criteria:

  • the employer has 100 or more employees (inside and outside of California)

  • is required to file an EEO-1 report, and

  • has at least one employee in California

When reporting, employers must include their employees:

  • Working at a California establishment

  • Working at an out of state establishment and reporting to a California establishment

  • Working remotely from home and reporting to a California establishment

  • Working remotely from home (in CA) and reporting to a non-California establishment

If your organization meets the above criteria, you must report certain EEOC and pay data for all qualified California employees to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) by May 8, 2024. 

 

NEXT STEPS

Preparing for the Report

We recommend reviewing and updating applicable company and employee information in Namely Payroll to ensure accurate reporting, as we work to finalize the report for you. All employees who meet the criteria must

  • have a Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and EEOC Category on the General page of their Namely Payroll profile.

  • be assigned to an establishment (Branch).  

    • You should use the same establishments that are used for your Federal EEO-1 reports.  

Review and Update Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and EEOC Category

  1. Log in to Namely Payroll and go to Reports > Date Range Reports.

  1. Choose a Snapshot Period.

    • This can be any pay period between October 1 and December 31.

  1. Set the Start Date and End Date filters to be the chosen snapshot period.

  1. Download the Employee Census.

    • The Employee Census report is a point in time report that will list all employees who were active in Namely Payroll on the date selected in the Date Range Filters.  

  1. Confirm the EEOC, Ethnicity, and Gender (Legal Sex) fields in the Employee Census report for each employee.

TIP:

All employees must have valid data for EEOC, Ethnicity, and Gender in order to pull into Section II of the CA Pay Data Report. 

Use the lists below to understand the valid designations for the report:

EEOC (this is the EEO Job Category)Valid EEO Job Categories are:

  • Administrative Support Workers

  • Craft Workers

  • Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers

  • First/Mid-Level Officials and Managers

  • Laborers and Helpers

  • Operatives

  • Professionals

  • Sales Workers

  • Service Workers

  • Technicians

TIP:

Namely includes None as an option, which is not an acceptable option by California. You will need to reassign any employees with None to a valid EEOC category in order for them to be included in Section II of the CA Pay Data Report.

Valid Ethnicities for EEO purposes are:

  • Hispanic or Latino

  • White (Not Hispanic or Latino)

  • Black or African American (Not Hispanic or Latino)

  • Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (Not Hispanic or Latino)

  • Asian (Not Hispanic or Latino) 

  • Native American or Alaska Native (Not Hispanic or Latino)

  • Two or More Races (Not Hispanic or Latino)

TIP:

Prefer not to disclose is an option in Namely, however, California does not recognize this as valid. 

Valid Genders for CA Pay Data Reporting are:

  • Male

  • Female

TIP:

If you have created a custom field to capture an employee's preferred gender, you cannot use it for CA Pay Data reporting. California only recognizes binary male/female genders. If you need to change legal gender data for any employee, it will need to be completed on the employee's HRIS profile or via an HRIS import.

If any changes need to be made, or if any data needs to be updated on a mass scale to employees’ EEO Job Category or Ethnicity, please submit a case in the Help Community if you need help completing a payroll import.

 

  • Product Name: Payroll

  • Product Feature: Employee Payroll Profiles & Data

  • Function: CA Pay Data Update 

If an employee has selected Prefer not to Disclose for Ethnicity or Gender, they will not be included in Section II of the report. Self-identification is the preferred method of identifying race, ethnicity, and gender.  If the employee declines to self-identify, you must update the missing information using employment records or observer identification. You must then manually update Section II including them in the correct group using the 2024 pay bands below: 

  • $19,239 and under

  • $19,240 – $24,959

  • $24,960 – $32,239

  • $32,240 – $41,079

  • $41,080 – $53,039

  • $53,040 – $68,119

  • $68,120 – $87,359

  • $87,360 – $112,319

  • $112,320 – $144,559

  • $144,560 – $186,159

  • $186,160 – $239,199

  • $239,200 and over

 

Download the Report

California Pay Data Report

Namely's California Pay Data report is available for you to download and submit to the California DFEH.

  1. Access this report in Namely Payroll under Reports > Date Range.

  1. Select a Snapshot Period between October 1 and December 31. 

  1. Find the CA Pay Data Report and download it as a .CSV. Make sure the worksheet is named PayDataReport.

  1. Fill out the required fields and categories:

    • NAICS Code

    • Major Activity

    • Was a California Pay Data Report filed for this establishment last year? (Yes or No)

    • Was an EEO-1 Report filed for this establishment last year? (Yes or No)

    • Is this establishment the employer's headquarters? (Yes or No)

  1. Once the information is complete, log on to Pay Data Reporting Portal.

    • Follow the instructions from the California Pay Data Reporting Portal User Guide.

    • Complete section 1-Employer Information Data by answering a series of questions on the portal.

    • Remove the entirety of section one from the Pay Data Report from Namely or copy and paste your section two data into a new template provided on the CA PayData website.

    • Upload the file.  

TIP:

For more detail about the codes as populated on the CA Pay Data report please see the instructions on the CA FAQ page. 

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Where can I access the California DFEH FAQs?

You can access it here.

 

Where can I download the California Pay Data report?

Access this report in Namely Payroll under Reports > Date Range > CA Pay Data Report.

When is the deadline to submit the report to the California DFEH?

The report must be submitted annually to the California DFEH by May 8, 2024.

What happens if I do not file a report?

If the DFEH does not receive the required report from an employer, the department may seek an order requiring the employer to comply with these requirements and shall be entitled to recover the costs associated with seeking the order for compliance.” Gov. Code § 12999(h).

Why is my employee count different in Section II than in Section I?

Employees in the following scenarios will not auto-populate in Section II:

  • The employee is missing a Gender categorization or is categorized as Prefer not to Disclose. CA will only accept Male or Female designations. You must manually update the count on the report for these employees.

  • The employee is missing EEOC categorization or is categorized as None, Faculty, or Officials and Managers.

  • The employee is missing Ethnicity categorization or is categorized as Prefer not to Disclose.

I'm not sure what some of the required fields mean. Is there a guide?

Yes. Please view the guide here and the template here.

Where can I find more information about this report?

Read more about this report here. For a list of FAQs from the State of California, please click here.

If we started processing payroll with Namely in the current year, will the report populate on our site for the prior calendar year?

No. The look-back period for this report is October 1 through December 31 of the prior year. If there is no pay cycle data during that time frame, the report will not populate.

Should an employer’s pay data report include only their California employees or all employees?

An employer that has 100 or more employees total, with at least one employee in California, is required to file a pay data report and an EEO-1 report with the DFEH.

When reporting to DFEH, employers must include their employees assigned to California establishments and/or working within California. 

The DFEH expects that a single-establishment employer in California include on its pay data report all employees (including any employees outside of California) even if they are teleworking.

For example, if an employer has a single establishment in Riverside, California with 500 employees working from that location, the employer would submit a report covering all 500 employees. If 25 of these employees were working remotely (in California or beyond), the employer’s report would still cover all 500 employees.

If employees telework from a residence in California but are assigned to an establishment outside of California, should they be included on the pay data report?

Yes. An employer’s report must include establishments outside of California if any employee at that establishment is working from California during the Snapshot Period. For an establishment outside of California, the employer’s reporting would cover

  • only those employees teleworking from California and who are assigned to a single establishment outside of California

  • all employees assigned to that establishment outside of California.

The DFEH has provided these options since one option may be easier for employers than the other in light of EEO-1 reporting.
 

What is a snapshot period?

The Snapshot Period is a single pay period between October 1 and December 31 of the Reporting Year. Gov. Code § 12999(b)(3). You are free to choose the single pay period between October 1 and December 31 of the Reporting Year that will serve as their Snapshot Period. The Snapshot Period is used by employers to identify the employees to be reported on in the pay data report submitted to DFEH. See Gov. Code §§ 12999(b)(3) & 12999(b)(4).
 
Some employers have noted that they have different pay periods (bi-weekly pay versus monthly pay) and have asked for guidance on how to pick their Snapshot Period. It is important to understand the purpose of the Snapshot Period. The Snapshot Period is not the period of time for calculating an employee’s pay or hours worked (see Parts III.G. and III.H for more information). Instead, the Snapshot Period should be used only to identify employees who must be reported in the employer’s pay data report. You must pick a fixed period of time to identify the employees to be reported on because your employees will usually change over the course of the year. Importantly, when identifying the employees to be reported on, it does not matter whether an employee was paid during the Snapshot Period. It only matters whether the employee was employed during the Snapshot Period.