EEOC Informal Discussion Letter

EEOC Office of Legal Counsel staff members wrote the following informal discussion letter in response to an inquiry from a member of the public. This letter is intended to provide an informal discussion of the noted issue and does not constitute an official opinion of the Commission.

ADA/TITLE VII: Pre-employment Inquiries

Dear Mr.

This is in response to your letter of November 2, 2000, with respect to the IRS and U.S. Department of Labor forms used by companies to gather information for purposes of applying for the Work Opportunity (WOTC) and Welfare to Work Tax Credits. You asked whether there is "anything that can be considered discriminatory" with the forms IRS-8850 and ETA-9061.

As discussed in our telephone call of November 8, 2000, neither the IRS-8850 nor the ETA-9061 should be considered discriminatory. You will not be in violation of the law if you use these forms as required by the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor. As I mentioned by telephone, it is advisable from the perspective of the Americans with Disabilities Act that employers use the ETA-9061 after making an offer of employment but before an individual starts work.

We hope that this information is helpful to you. This letter is not an official opinion of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Sincerely,

Carol R. Miaskoff
Assistant Legal Counsel

This page was last modified on April 27, 2007.