The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has been busy. In the last iStock_000004581445XSmallseveral weeks, the OFCCP has proposed regulations that will require contractors and subcontractors to provide summary compensation data and another rule prohibiting federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating against employees or applicants who inquire about, discuss, or disclose their own compensation or the compensation of another employee or applicant.

Equal Pay Report

The OFCCP has proposed Summary Compensation regulations which would require federal contractors and subcontractors with more than 100 employees to “provide summary data on the compensation paid to employees by sex, race, ethnicity, specified job categories, and other relevant data points.” Covered employers would have to submit three types of information:

  1. the total number of workers within a specific EEO-1 job category by race, ethnicity and sex;
  2. total W-2 wages defined as the total individual W-2 wages for all workers in the job category by race, ethnicity and sex; and
  3. total hours worked, defined as the number of hours worked by all employees in the job category by race, ethnicity and sex.

Prohibition to Pay Secrecy

The OFCCP announced a proposed rule to prohibit pay secrecy policies and actions by covered Federal contractors and subcontractors. The proposed rule will implement Executive Order 13665 by prohibiting federal contractors from discharging or discriminating in any other way against employees or applicants who inquire about, discuss, or disclose their own compensation or the compensation of another employee or applicant.

The OFCCP concluded that this rule will enable 28 million employees of federal contractors and subcontractors to discuss their compensation without fear of adverse action and will contribute to reducing pay discrimination and ensure that qualified and productive employees receive fair compensation.

Why you should care: If you are a federal contractor, these two rules are yet another rule proposed by the OFCCP which will impact your operations and will require additional reporting should they actually become federal regulations.