By Noreen Farrell
The Trump administration’s rescission of Executive Order 11246 — a landmark civil rights protection signed into law by President Johnson in 1965 — dismantles nearly 60 years of workplace protections for women.
Throughout ERA’s 50-year history fighting workplace discrimination, we have relied on the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the federal agency charged with enforcing these protections, to investigate systemic discrimination and ensure pay equity. This agency’s enforcement powers have helped countless women get justice when facing discrimination.
The Trump Administration took dramatic action on Friday, January 24, to effectuate the order. The Acting Secretary of Labor ordered OFCCP to immediately stop all investigations and enforcement. The order applies to all department employees, including the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Office of Administrative Law Judges and the Administrative Review Board. The Friday evening order indicates that the department no longer has any authority under the rescinded Executive Order 11246 or its regulations.
Executive Order 11246 prohibited federal contractors from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin while requiring these employers to also take affirmative steps to ensure equal employment opportunity. It simply ensured that companies receiving taxpayer dollars through federal contracts could not unlawfully discriminate against workers. By eliminating OFCCP’s proactive monitoring of workplace discrimination and pay equity, this order leaves one-fifth of American workers — those employed by federal contractors — more vulnerable to unchecked discrimination.
Moreover, Trump’s actions go further than rescinding nondiscrimination oversight by OFCCP. He also is empowering the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate corporations, non-profits, and other institutions for their work promoting diversity.
Over the past decade alone, OFCCP has recovered $260 million for over 250,000 workers who faced discrimination by federal contractors. Just last year, OFCCP’s intervention led to an agreement by State Street Corporation to allocate $4.2 million for future pay adjustments to resolve alleged compensation discrimination involving female managing directors. This is exactly the critical OFCCP intervention to address systematic discrimination that will now disappear. Without OFCCP’s oversight, the government is turning a blind eye toward discrimination facilitated by American tax payer dollars to private companies.
Women, and particularly women of color, will bear the brunt of this rollback given the persistent wage gaps they already face. Women overall still earn only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men, with Black women earning just 64 cents and Latina women only 51 cents on the dollar. The order specifically strips away protections that prevent retaliation against workers who discuss their pay with colleagues—a vital tool for identifying and addressing these pay disparities.
What’s more, the dismantling of these long-established civil rights protections sets a dangerous precedent that threatens decades of bipartisan progress toward workplace equality, which research shows spurs innovation and economic growth.
Equal Rights Advocates demands execution of all strategies to ensure nondiscrimination by companies receiving federal dollars, including legislative solutions. Equal Rights Advocates will continue fighting alongside our partners to defend workers’ rights and ensure that our tax dollars do not fund discrimination.
Noreen Farrell is Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates.