Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

The Department of Labor has announced the release of a Final Rule implementing Executive Order 13672, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by federal contractors and subcontractors. Executive Order 13672, signed by President Obama on July 21, 2014, amended Executive Order 11246 by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the protected categories provided in the latter EO. The Final Rule will be effective 120 days after the date of its official publication in the Federal Register and will apply to government contracts entered into or modified after the effective date.

Effective February 28, 2013, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP” or “Office”) has rescinded two guidance documents implemented during the Bush administration that outlined methods for investigating and evaluating pay discrimination claims against federal contractors and replaced them with new guidelines emphasizing a case-by-case approach that provides investigators with authority to conduct more thorough investigations and identify a broader range of compensation-related discrimination.  The first document, Interpreting Nondiscrimination Requirements of Executive Order 11246 With Respect to Systemic Compensation Discrimination (“Compensation Standards”), set forth the procedures OFCCP followed when issuing a notice of violation for pay discrimination; and the second document, Voluntary Guidelines for Self-Evaluation of Compensation Practices for Compliance with Nondiscrimination Requirements of Executive Order 11246 (“Voluntary Guidelines”), contained directions that federal contractors themselves could follow to preemptively show compliance with their obligation to evaluate their internal pay practices for fairness.