Recent actions by the Trump administration have put working Americans at greater risk of unchecked discrimination and harassment by degrading long-standing programs such as the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Already, these actions have harmed workers. While discrimination is illegal for all employers, the federal government maintains greater oversight of the employers that win its contracts, whether to provide goods or services, to staff projects, or to administer crucial functions of everyday life. Even beyond these workers being harmed, because taxpayer dollars are being spent—and because discrimination is an expensive misuse of funds—enforcement is a crucial part of contracting.
But now, the Trump administration is putting workers and tax dollars at risk to make it easier for well-connected corporations to skirt the law. For example, Tesla was being audited by the OFCCP and was previously reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for accusations of racial harassment in the workplace; that investigation has now ended. With no enforcement apparatus for federal contractors, employers will not be held accountable for the millions of dollars they illegally cost workers every year, and workers will not be paid what they are owed.
What the OFCCP did under Executive Order 11246
The OFCCP was created to enforce non-discrimination provisions in federal contracting under the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Specifically, it was tasked with enforcing the provisions of Executive Order 11246, which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed in 1965. Historically, the OFCCP has been able to take contracting actions to enforce non-discrimination in employment via this order. Some of the ways in which the office could take action or sanction employers included suspending or preventing employers from receiving future contracts with the federal government.
EO 11246 did not cover all types of discrimination in federal contracting, but it did cover discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, and sex; and later, President Barack Obama amended the EO to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Two other laws, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, task the OFCCP with the duty of non-discrimination enforcement for federal contractors or subcontractors on the basis of disability or veteran status. Since these latter two protections are guaranteed by statute, they are not directly affected by the Trump administration’s rescinding of the anti-discrimination executive order, but they could still face other attacks.
36 million workers were protected by the OFCCP and EO 11246
The OFCCP enforces non-discrimination policies across the whole of a contractor’s workforce, meaning the benefits of enforcement actions have broad ripple effects that extend well beyond the individual contractor. According to the DOL, “Approximately 22% of the American workforce is employed by companies that do business with the federal government.” This percentage, when applied to the employed civilian non-institutional population as of January 2025, equates to 36 million workers. Therefore, as a result of the Trump administration’s actions, at least 36 million workers are losing discrimination protections, as are the millions of additional individuals who might be facing discrimination during the hiring process.
In one example from 2024, Ryan Companies US Inc. entered into a conciliation agreement with the OFCCP relating to allegations of sexual harassment incidents with contractors working on construction services for federally funded projects. The company, which has received nearly $1 million in federal contracts over the past decade, paid $350,000 in monetary relief to resolve allegations that employees had experienced such a hostile work environment and faced retaliation for reporting sexual harassment. The company also had to comply with routine monitoring.
Recent executive actions hurt working people
The recent presidential action titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” revoked EO 11246, disarming the OFCCP’s primary enforcement mechanism. This decision ultimately puts the responsibility on the worker to determine if a discriminatory action has occurred and to file a complaint against the employer. But often, systemic discrimination is difficult for any one individual to identify without seeing the full scope of hiring and pay practices at a company. The OFCCP was well-positioned to weed out that type of discrimination.
For example, in one recent case, a routine compliance review by the OFCCP found that nearly 130 Black and white applicants for warehouse positions with a company acquired by Boeing had been discriminated against during the hiring process. As a result of the review, these applicants—in a field where workers typically make less than $20 per hour—received $402,500 in back pay and interest, with 11 of those Black and white applicants being offered jobs with Boeing as soon as they became available. The monetary awards that the OFCCP provides workers suffering workplace discrimination are valued at millions of dollars each year: The National Women’s Law Center finds that over the past 10 years, the OFCCP has secured more than $260 million for people who were being discriminated against in their workplace or on the job market.
These are examples of the countless ways the OFCCP’s routine auditing process has helped workers secure compensation for discrimination and harassment. In many of these cases, the discrimination is systemic, so workers do not realize it is occurring, and therefore, it would be difficult for them to realize they have a case with the EEOC and proceed with the process of filing a complaint. Even though workers are still protected from discrimination on the basis of sex, race, national origin, and religion by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the OFCCP has helped workers by identifying discrimination at every level of the contracting process and was strengthened by the enforcement capabilities outlined above.
Conclusion
This is why OFCCP is so important for working Americans. For the 1 in 5 American workers at a company receiving federal contracts and countless more hopeful candidates applying to these workplaces, compliance reviews can weed out discrimination and harassment they may not know is happening. This also includes reviews for corporate managers, who may be able to expand opportunities for underrepresented groups.
But now that EO 11246 has been revoked by the Trump administration, if women are facing wage discrimination or if there is systemic racial discrimination in the hiring process, it could go undetected. Without the OFCCP’s proactive compliance review and audit processes, systemic discrimination in hiring or the workplace is more likely to continue without correction. And without the OFCCP’s sanction authority, Americans’ tax dollars could be paying for illegal discrimination. Government funding should not flow into businesses that discriminate, and workers deserve accountability for a safe work environment and fair compensation.
This article was published by The Conversation.
No comments:
Post a Comment