Reports on workforce demography not only encourage quotas but mask discrimination. The EEOC is considering a proposal to rescind requirements for large employers to file annual head counts of their workforce by race, sex and ethnicity, regardless of discrimination allegations. It’s a welcome change, and the reasoning behind the proposal sheds light on the original purpose of civil rights enforcement.

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of religion, race, sex and national origin. It authorizes the EEOC to require companies to keep records and to file reports relevant to enforcing that law. The reporting requirement for private companies went into effect in 1966.

Civil‑rights law is meant to guarantee equal treatment to each person, not to push employers toward race‑ or sex‑conscious decisions aimed at hitting the right aggregate numbers. An annual filing that tallies every large employers’ workforce by race and sex nudges companies toward statistical management. Ending that requirement would help refocus the law on protecting individuals. The commission argues that removing the head‑count mandate will allow the agency to focus on individual complaints rather than aggregate statistics.