About the Report

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The report analyzes the impact of President Obama’s 2014 executive order forbidding federal contractors to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Researchers use data from charges of SOGI discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a state nondiscrimination agency from 2013-2016. The charge data for private sector employers are matched to the EEOC’s EEO-1 of establishments to create a pooled cross section dataset of establishments with and without charges. Researchers estimate the probability that an employee files a SOGI discrimination charge against an establishment both before and after the executive order was signed or implemented.

Researchers find that from a baseline average charge rate of 2.0%, the probability of a charge rose for non-contractors by 0.4 percentage points after the executive order was signed (a 20% increase), and for federal contractors the probability rose by 0.6 percentage points (a 30% increase), although the difference-in-differences is not statistically significant. They also analyze the probability that a SOGI discrimination charge results in a merit outcome before and after the executive order. They find that the firms with the biggest change in policy pressure, federal contractors in states without laws against SOGI discrimination, saw a lower probability of a charge having merit after the executive order, falling from 22.5% to 14.7%.

Citation

Badgett, M. V. L., Baumle, A., Boutcher, S., Jee, E. (2019). The Impact of a Ban on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination on Federal Contractors. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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This study was part of CEO’s Labor Research and Evaluation Grants, and was produced outside of CEO’s standard research development process.