The reach of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act has expanded in recent years, most notably when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its regulatory guidance on July 14, 2014. In subsequent years, the courts have added additional interpretation and clarification. And many employers have been caught off guard. Background The origin of the prohibition on pregnancy discrimination lies in Title VII of...

Organizations typically distinguish “Diversity Management” from “Affirmative Action.” The perception is that an affirmative action program consists of “compliance in order to conduct business with the federal government,” whereas diversity management “aims to provide tangible benefits.” I think the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) would be surprised to...

The workplace culture of federal contractors is about to change dramatically. It has been taboo in the private sector to discuss one’s personal salary or inquire about the compensation of others, but the recently issued Pay Transparency Final Rule will provide protections to applicants and employees who break tradition. On September 10, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Complia...

The “unknown problem” is actually very familiar to anyone who analyzes applicant data. So, it’s not really “unknown” at all. But the problem is much broader than one might imagine, and has implications that ripple through several analyses in your Affirmative Action Plan. Unknown Race and/or Gender Status in Applicant Data I have never seen an applicant data set that didn’t have s...

Thirty days – calendar days – is a very short time to get a submission together for OFCCP, but it's not the time to cut corners. One of the most effective ways to avoid a protracted review is to ensure that the data you submit is comprehensive, accurate, and is internally consistent. You do not want to be correcting data after it has already been sent to OFCCP, as OFCCP tends to presume that corrected data i...