DE Under 3: Illinois Set to Become First U.S. State to Count Arab Americans When Collecting Public Data
As 2023 ends, despite the visions of sugar plums dancing in your head, it is a good time to take stock of government initiatives affecting your Affirmative Action practice, the better to get ready for 2024. Many things...more
The U.S. Government Accountability Office's recently issued annual bid protest report is noteworthy because it shows that 31% of bid protests were sustained — more than double the rate for prior years— and that protesters...more
Last week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO") published its much anticipated Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2023. GAO's annual report is required under the Competition in Contracting Act...more
In October 2022, I circulated “An In-Depth Examination of Inflation Relief for a Government Contractor[.]” Much has occurred since. Inflation remains an acute problem. In turn, contractors and subcontractors continue...more
Although statistical analyses are commonly used to determine disparities in such employment decisions as hiring and compensation, they can be difficult to comprehend. In this session, we will explain the basic principles of...more
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) is seeking to codify its current procedures for analyzing statistical evidence of discrimination and communicating with contractors after finding potential...more
The Situation: The U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO") recently released its annual Bid Protest Report. The Result: The report contains a wealth of information about bid protests, including statistics and...more
The Office of Federal Contractor Compliance has been busy this year. In 2019, it has obtained over $40M in settlements from federal contractors to resolve claims of hiring and compensation discrimination. This figure tops...more
The OFCCP opened the month of October by announcing three multimillion dollar settlements with major government contractors. The agency entered into early resolution conciliation agreements with Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and...more
On July 22, 2019, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued its second Opinion Letter since November 30, 2018, when Directive 2019-03 announced the agency’s intent to begin delivering such guidance to...more
On April 10, 2019, in New York City, OFCCP hosted a town hall focused on the “legal industry and related fields.” Guy Brenner of Proskauer attended the event, which had far fewer attendees than the financial sector town hall...more
The Issue: The U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO") recently issued its Fiscal Year 2018 ("FY18") end-of-year summary statistics. The Outcome: The number of cases filed, the sustain rate, and the effectiveness...more
GAO’s sustain rate and effectiveness rate both dropped to the lowest levels since Fiscal Year 2015. Protest activity at the GAO increased slightly over the previous year....more
On Nov. 27, 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual report to Congress that details the prior year's protest statistics. The sum of these numbers shows a number of continuing trends at GAO,...more
The OFCCP’s recent Directive, issued on August 24, 2018, signals a move towards greater transparency in the compensation review process for contractors. With this new Directive, the OFCCP has rescinded former Obama-era...more
The agency overseeing federal contractors issued a revised pay bias directive on Friday that somewhat loosens the standards by which it will evaluate employer compensation practices during compliance investigations. The...more
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims recently issued a 2017 statistical report—covering the government’s fiscal year October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. During this time, 652 suits filed were filed at the Court and 1,035 suits...more
As part of a statistical analysis for an affirmative action program for minorities and females, contractors must estimate external availability in order to determine utilization and annual placement goals. Contractors are...more
Employers facing a determination by the OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs) that they have violated the anti-discrimination laws applicable to federal contractors often confront a black box when trying to...more