Established in 1965, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is a civil rights agency within the United States Department of Labor.

OFCCP maintains a headquarters in Washington, DC, and several regional offices across the country. The headquarters office sets and coordinates the agency's enforcement priorities, compliance evaluation scheduling process, compliance assistance activities, staff and contractor education, contractor outreach and engagement, worker and community outreach, and performance data collection and reporting . The agency's regional offices oversee, conduct, and coordinate compliance evaluations and complaint investigations, and local and regional stakeholder engagement.

Compliance evaluations and complaint investigations are used by OFCCP to determine whether companies doing business with the Federal Government, that is, federal contractors and subcontractors (generally referred to as federal contractors), are living up to their obligation to not discriminate when making employment decisions such as hiring, firing, promoting, transferring, laying off, and paying or compensating employees. Federal contractors are also obligated to provide equal employment opportunity to all jobseekers and employees, and compliance evaluations determine whether contractors are meeting this requirement.

OFCCP enforces laws specifically prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity , national origin , disabi lity, or status as a protected veteran. The laws OFCCP enforces also require these employers to provide equal employment opportunity to all employees and job applicants.

In addition to these nondiscrimination and equal opportunity obligations, federal contractors are prohibited from discharging or otherwise discriminating by taking adverse actions against their employees and job applicants for discussing , disclosing, or inquiring about their pay or that of their co-workers . OFCCP refers to this prohibition as the "pay transparency " provision . The types of adverse actions that federal contractors are prohibited from taking include, for example, firing , demoting, suspending, or refusing to hire an employee or job applicant. There are two defenses to allegations of discrimination under OFCCP 's pay transparency protection : a general defense that can be based on the enforcement of a "workplace rule" that does not prohibit the discussion of compensation info rmation ; and an essential job functions defense.

OFCCP requires federal contractors to comply with these legal obligations. To help obtain compliance, OFCCP provides various kinds of compliance assistance to federal contractors. This assistance includes explaining the technical requirements associated with being compliant with OFCCP's requirements. It may also include assistance with how to implement these technical requirements.

OFCCP protects the employment rights of job applicants and employees of companies that are federal contractors. Federal contractors are covered by the three laws that OFCCP enforces if they hold a qualifying federal contract or subcontract that meets certain threshold requirements.

• Executive Order (EO) 11246 prohibits discrimination and requires affirmative action for all applicants and employees to ensure equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and national origin. In addition, contractors are prohibited from discharging or otherwise discriminating against applicants or employees who inquire about, discuss or disclose their compensation or that of others, subject to certain limitations. EO 11246 applies when a company has federal contracts or subcontracts exceeding $10,000.


• Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 503) prohibits discrimination and requires affirmative action in all employment practices for qualified individuals with disabilities. A disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. Section 503 applies when a company has a federal supply and service or direct (i.e., not federally-assisted) construction contract or subcontract exceeding $15,000. It does not apply to federally-assisted construction contracts.


• The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA) prohibits discrimination and requires affirmative action in all employment practices for protected veterans. Protected veterans are disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans, and Armed Forces service medal veterans. VEVRAA applies to a company with a federal supply and service or direct construction contract or subcontract of $150,000 or more. It does not apply to federally­ assisted construction contracts.

Employers that are federal contractors are covered by the basic nondiscrimination and equal employment opportunity requirements of these three laws regardless of how many employees they have. However, those federal contractors that meet certain dollar thresholds (i.e., a contract of $50,000 or more for EO 11246 and Section 503; a contract of $150,000 or more for VEVRAA) and have at least 50 employees must have a written affirmative action program (AAP). Federal contractors must prepare a separate written AAP for each law for which they have met the dollar and employee thresholds.

Covered federal contractors have several responsibilities. The specific obligations vary somewhat under the three laws; however, contractors should be aware of all of the requirements. Below is a list of several important compliance requirements.

• Creating a written AAP and updating it annually.


• Recordkeeping, including annually collecting, maintaining, and analyzing personnel activity data on the basis of race, sex, disability status, and veteran status. Personnel activity data includes, but is not limited to, hiring, assignments, rates of pay or other compensation, promotions, training, transfers, layoffs or terminations, recalls from layoffs, and demotions.
  
• Incorporating the required Equal Opportunity (EO) clause(s).


• Posting the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) poster and other required notices and supplements at their establishment and online if an online application system exists.


• Inserting the EEO tag line into job advertisements. When posting open positions, contractors must include an EEO tagline that states it is an Equal Opportunity Employer (or "EOE") and that minorities, women, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and others are encouraged to apply. Contractors can abbreviate references to the protected groups in several ways. For example, for a contractor complying with all three laws enforced by OFCCP, one acceptable tagline might be "EOE including disability/vet." Another is "EOE race/color/religion/sex/sexual orientation/gender identity/national origin/disability/vet." The intent is to provide as much notice as possible about the protected groups while allowing contractors some flexibility for constructing their taglines.


• Taking specific, documented actions to attain the aspirational 7 percent utilization goal by job group or workforce, depending on the contractor's size, for qualified individuals with disabilities.


• Inviting applicants and employees to voluntarily self-identify as qualified individuals with disabilities or protected veterans.


• Conducting periodic reviews of all physical and mental job qualifications to ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities are not eliminated from consideration on the basis of disability, maintaining documentation on the results of the reviews as well as any corrective actions taken, and removing job qualifications that are not job related and consistent with business necessity.


• Providing reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans, upon request, unless the accommodation would cause an undue hardship


• Listing all employment openings with the appropriate state or local employment service delivery system (ESDS). Examples of an ESDS are state and local employment and career agencies, state job banks, and local One-Stop Career Centers. Generally, contractors must send their job listings to the ESDS where the job openings occur. However, this VEVRAA requirement gives contractors other listing options when jobs are 100 percent telework or remote.


• Establishing an annual hiring benchmark or adopting the national benchmark for hiring protected veterans, and comparing the number of protected veterans who apply for jobs and the number of protected veterans hired. The benchmark is used as a measure of progress; no penalty is assessed for not reaching the benchmark.


• Providing OFCCP access to records during a compliance evaluation or a complaint investigation.

Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires contractors with 50 or more employees and contracts over $50,000 to take affirmative action with regard to qualified individuals with disabilities.

The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA), as amended by the Jobs for Veterans Act, requires contractors to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment veterans with service-connected disabilities, recently separated veterans and other protected veterans. VEVRAA requires that contractors with 50 or more employees and a contract of $150,000 or more would need a written affirmative action program.

Under Executive Order 11246, federal contractors and subcontractors with 50 or more employees who have entered into at least one contract of $50,000 or more with the federal government must prepare and maintain a written program, which must be developed within 120 days from the commencement of the contract and must be updated annually. The program should cover recruitment, hiring and promotion of women and minorities. Any depository of government funds in any amount or any financial institution that is an issuing and paying agent for U.S. savings bonds and savings notes in any amount must develop and maintain written affirmative action programs as well.