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The report describes a study that uses administrative data from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) on reviews of federal contractors that closed between fiscal years 2003 and 2012 to examine trends in, and factors associated with, violations and re-violations of equal employment opportunity laws and the effectiveness of remedies and press releases to deter re-violations. Although data quality limits the reliability of the study’s findings, the methods for using and extracting data and the models developed to address research questions of interest to OFCCP highlight the capacity of the data to be used as a monitoring tool after data limitations are lessened. The study also identified two key areas in which data improvements should be made: (1) ensuring the accuracy and completeness of violation status and information, identification of contractors across reviews, and remedies; and (2) standardizing information across different entities and investigations.

Research Questions

• What are the violation rates among federal contractors OFCCP investigates, and what are the characteristics of violators?
• What are the re-violation rates among federal contractors OFCCP investigates, and what are the characteristics of re-violators?
• Is the remedy process associated with deterring re-violations?

Key Takeaways

• OFCCP closed about 4,620 reviews per year between 2003 and 2012, with only a slight variation over the period.
• About 72 percent of the reviews were initiated under the selection system process, and more (about 22 percent) were conducted by the Southeast regional Department of Labor (DOL) office than any other office.
• Reviews were concentrated among mid-size contractors and contractors in one of four industries: (1) manufacturing, (2) professional/scientific/technical, (3) health and social assistance, and (4) administrative support.
• In general, contractors that had reviews close between 2003 and 2012 had between 50 and 999 workers (90.0 percent) and were in the manufacturing (35.0 percent) or professional/scientific/technical sector (12.3 percent).

Research Gaps

• Two key areas for exploration for future research emerge from our analysis of violators and violations, as we found that variation exists in the rate in which reviews uncover violations by: 1. Type of violation. 2. Type of review. (page 27)

Citation

Maxwell, N., Moorthy, A., Massad Francis, C., Ellis, D. (2013). Mathematica. Using Administrative Data to Address Federal Contractor Violations of Equal Employment Opportunity Laws. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.