3C00 Executive Order Goals

Goals serve as reasonably attainable objectives and allow contractors to measure progress toward achieving equal employment opportunity. They are not quotas. Failure to meet any goal, in and of itself, does not constitute a violation of the Executive Order. Contractors must demonstrate good faith efforts toward meeting their minority and female participation rate goals contained in the bid solicitation. These goals are determined by the Director of OFCCP and are issued in accordance with 41 CFR 60-4.6 by geographic area.

The participation rate goals are expressed as a percentage of the hours a contractor’s aggregate workforce worked in each trade on all construction work performed in the geographic area. A covered construction contractor must apply the participation rate goals on all of its federal, federally assisted, and nonfederal construction work. If a covered construction contractor performs work in multiple geographic areas, the contractor must make good faith efforts to achieve the goals for women and minorities in each geographic area where work is being performed.

a. Goals for Women. The current goal for the utilization of women is 6.9 percent of work hours and applies to all of a contractor’s construction sites, regardless of where the federal or federally assisted contract is performed.187

b. Minority Group Goals. The current goals for the utilization of minorities are formulated in terms of work hours performed in a specific Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) or non-SMSA.188 For example, ABC Company has a federal contract for construction work in SMSA X. The goals for SMSA X apply to all of ABC’s construction work in SMSA X, both the federally involved and the nonfederally involved construction work. In addition, if ABC Company performs construction work in SMSA Y, it would apply the SMSA Y goals to all its construction work in SMSA Y, whether or not it had a federal or federally assisted contract in SMSA Y.