Welcome in, today is Friday, August twenty-eighth, and we begin with a Republican commissioner at the EEOC defending how the agency is enforcing antidiscrimination law, per Bloomberg Law. EEOC Commissioner Brittany Panuccio is pushing back on the idea that the agency has taken a maximalist approach under the Trump administration, Bloomberg Law reports. The Republican commissioner defended the agency Thursday during a Federalist Society webinar, after being asked about perceptions that priorities like treating diversity programs as discriminatory push beyond the EEOC's normal bounds. In her words, when Congress has prohibited conduct, the commission should enforce that prohibition vigorously, and what this administration has changed is even handedness. For employers gauging enforcement risk, that is the agency's own account of how it says it is applying the law. Industry reaction centers less on the fairness claim than on a proposed rescission of mandatory workforce demographic reporting, reported by Bloomberg Law, and a recurring note from employment-side advisers is that shifting federal priorities do not narrow overall exposure, since the underlying statutes stay in force. Separately, wellness program surcharges are back on the benefits agenda. The Labor Department, alongside other agencies, has addressed questions about how those surcharges may be designed, HR Dive reported Thursday. An attorney told that publication that aspects of ERISA once treated as settled continue to be challenged, a live compliance question for plan sponsors whose incentive structures were built on older assumptions. Among benefits practitioners, early reaction centers on one narrow point, an apparent willingness by regulators not to pursue plans that skip retroactive refunds of tobacco surcharges, provided the lower rate applies going forward once a participant completes an alternative standard. On the HR tech side, Workday posted second quarter revenue of two point six five billion dollars, up about thirteen percent on the year, with subscription revenue up roughly fourteen percent to two point four seven billion, according to Reuters and Investing dot com. Adjusted earnings were two dollars and seventy-five cents a share, ahead of consensus. Per that reporting, the company said AI products drove more than one hundred million dollars of new annual contract value, over a quarter of all new contract value closed in the quarter, and that more than half of net new wins signed for at least one AI solution. Those adoption figures are the company's own. For buyers weighing whether AI displaces or expands incumbent HCM suites, that is a hard number on the question. Shares moved only modestly after the print. Now to hiring. Recruiters using AI resume screening say they are seeing more qualified candidates, while still worrying the technology cuts some applicants out too early, HR Executive reports, describing a visibility gap. That account does not attach a figure to how often it happens. The tension sits inside any funnel that now routes every application through an automated filter. Reaction leans toward framing this as a closed loop rather than a screening problem: with AI-written applications graded by AI-built filters, some practitioners argue volume is rising while signal falls, and a recurring suggestion is a shift from document filtering to structured, evidence-based assessment. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. McKinsey's diversity research is drawing congressional scrutiny. Texas Republican Brandon Gill has sought company data, criticizing what he called the firm's heavy-handed promotion of DEI practices, HR Dive reports. The NAIC's ERISA and Alternative Health Coverage Working Group has formed a regulator-only group that intends to start drafting guidance on level-funded plans soon, per HR Executive. Average health savings account balances have hit a record high, HR Executive reports, though few account holders contributed the maximum. More than one in three employers, thirty-six percent, have cut entry-level roles for sixteen to twenty-four year olds, Personnel Today reports, following our earlier coverage of graduate vacancies hitting an all-time low. And finally, up to eighty-seven thousand Canadian jobs are at risk from the new US tariffs, according to HRD Canada.