Affirmative Action

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On March 19, 2025, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued a technical assistance document titled, “What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work.”  The document is comprised of a series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that provide guidance on what workplace diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) policies and programs may…

In a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College all but banned the use of race as a factor in college admissions.  The majority opinion turned on the idea that race-based admissions violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Twenty years…

Historically, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) has not required federal contractors to submit proof that their written affirmative action plans were completed.  The only time that a contractor had to produce evidence of its plan was during an OFCCP audit.  As many federal contractors now know, that is about to change.

In…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on September 11, 2019 that it will not be seeking renewal for collection of EEO-1 Component 2 pay data, which requires employers with 100 or more employees to submit employee pay data on the new EEO-1 on an annual basis. Moving forward, the EEOC stated it would seek…

Employers with 100 or more employees (and federal contractors with 50 or more employees) must submit an EEO-1 Report annually, detailing the race, gender, and ethnicity of its workforce. In September of 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued a revised EEO-1 Form, which would have required employers to submit extensive data related to…

A few weeks ago, a jury in New Jersey federal court found that Lockheed Martin discriminated against a former employee. The employee claimed that Lockheed violated federal and state laws by discriminating against him on the basis of age, including by paying him less than his younger co-workers. The jury’s award: $51.5 million ($1.5 million…

Back on September 7, 2015, President Obama signed Executive Order 13706, which requires that certain federal contractors provide their employees up to fifty-six hours of paid sick leave per year. In February of this year, the United States Department of Labor issued proposed rules to implement the Executive Order, and it invited public comment on…

Employers with more than 100 employees and federal contractors are probably more than familiar with the EEO-1 reporting requirements, but those requirements are about to change. On July 13, 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published a revised version of a proposed rule to broaden the scope of data collected in the EEO-1 report. Earlier…

On June 14, 2016, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) released its updated final rule regarding sex/gender discrimination. The stated purpose of the update was to revise OFCCP’s decades old guidance which was, at some level, in conflict with certain new principles currently espoused by EEOC. For example, OFCCP’s old rule required covered…