Women's Earnings: Federal Agencies Should Better Monitor Their Performance in Enforcing Anti-Discrimination Laws

EEOC has created a specialized report from its information technology system tracking charges of gender pay discrimination by statute, including the Equal Pay Act, Title VII, and other statutes, and has used this report to generate historical gender pay data dating from FY 1997. EEOC plans to continue generating this data each quarter and to use this information to track and respond to trends in gender pay enforcement. EEOC has also incorporated this information into its budget and performance planning. EEOC noted that having this information available helped it respond effectively when Title VII was amended by the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in early 2009.

In 2008, OFCCP evaluated the Westat model in-house and found that it was not an effective means of selecting contractors that were more likely to have findings of non-compliance. In 2011, OFCCP contracted with IMPAQ International to create a new model based on more current OFCCP administrative data and EEO-1 survey data submitted by contractors (which includes the total number of employees by race, gender, ethnicity and occupational categories). Internal evaluations found this new model to be statistically significantly more predictive of non-compliance than either the Westat model or random chance. Additionally, according to OFCCP officials, the IMPAQ model will improve on two of the problems identified with the method used prior to the Westat model: identifying all contractors, and ensuring complete and reliable data. Previously, contractors that did not fill out the EEO-1 survey were not included in the selection pool. Now, the contractors are selected from the Federal Procurement Data System, a more complete listing of contractors. Furthermore, OFCCP has taken steps to improve the reliability of its administrative data, which forms an important part of the IMPAQ model.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) awarded a contract for its new data system, to be called the Federal Contract Compliance System (FCCS), in FY 2011. According to OFCCP documents, the new system will modernize agency data collection and methods to include standardized and configurable workflows, business rules for quality management, case management data validation, alerts and notifications, document management, records management, robust reporting, security, privacy, and accountability safeguards. Additionally, OFCCP plans to make efforts to correct inaccuracies and enter missing fields in its current data. They will also address inconsistencies in data entry and accuracy via enhanced data integrity reporting, data quality reviews, and by holding employees and supervisors accountable for maintaining data integrity through their performance reviews. OFCCP expects FCCS to begin operation in late 2012.

Since the time of our review, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has greatly increased its focus on compensation, although it does not monitor these efforts by discrimination factors such as gender or race. In its FY 2012 operating plan, OFCCP identified two performance goals that it would use to monitor compensation enforcement efforts on a quarterly basis: increases in (1) the number of notices of violations and (2) the number of conciliation agreements with findings of pay discrimination. While neither of these is specific to gender, over half of OFCCP's pay discrimination cases involve gender, with the rest involving race. In addition, OFCCP created new compensation evaluation guidelines for its compliance officers in 2012, which aim to improve the quality and depth of its compensation evaluations. They further plan to have the national office review a sample of completed compensation assessments to ensure that the new guidance is properly implemented, to see whether it is clear and effective in practice, and to address deficiencies immediately through revision and/or additional training and tools. Finally, at the end of each quarter, OFCCP will prepare a qualitative review, which will assess the extent to which its compensation evaluations address systemic issues and identify any gaps in training or implementation.

According to Labor, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCCP) developed a feedback form and began distributing it to contractors receiving compliance and technical assistance in FY 2009. Analysis of this feedback was included in OFCCP's semi-annual Compliance Assistance Plan beginning March 31, 2009. Additionally, from September 2009 to June 2010, OFCCP sent feedback surveys to over 9,000 webinar participants, 40 percent of whom returned the surveys. Labor reports that OFCCP used the feedback to plan future technical assistance.