LGBT Discrimination
White House officials announced this week that President Obama intends to sign an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Many states and local governments already have laws, applicable to all employers, banning this type of discrimination. Last year, the Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would have prohibited this type of discrimination against all workers in the United States, but the bill stalled in the House.
Obama’s executive order would protect up to sixteen million employees working for employers with federal contracts. In the meantime, federal contractor employers may wish to consider reviewing their non-discrimination and non-retaliation policies to ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity are explicitly covered.
$10.10 Minimum Wage for Employees of Federal Contractors
Seeking to fulfill President Obama’s executive order (issued in February), the Labor Department proposed a rule this week to raise the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $10.10 an hour.
The wage increase would benefit about 200,000 workers, an estimate that was not available when the executive order was announced. If enacted, the rate would apply to contracts issued on or after Jan. 1, 2015. The DOL is expected to issue the final rule on October 1, 2014.
