Biden Administration’s Focus on Social Justice is Certain to Impact Workplace Policies
Jan 29, 2021
In his first week in office, President Biden took immediate steps to address a core pillar of his Administration’s agenda – dismantling policies and practices that promote persistent and systemic social injustice. As an initial step, the President focused his sights on federal policies and programs that impact Americans broadly and federal employees specifically.
- Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities, repeals Executive Order 13950, known as President Trump’s “Anti-Bias Training” and requires federal agencies to evaluate whether their programs and policies “perpetuate systemic barriers to opportunities and benefits for people of color and other underserved groups.” Agency heads are to deliver an action plan based upon their findings within 200 days to address barriers to equal opportunity. The Administration’s goal is to “root out systemic racism” and barriers that have perpetuated discrimination and the denial of civil rights and equality to underserved communities including individuals of color and others who have been marginalized.
- Executive Order 13988, Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, directs agency heads, in consultation with the Attorney General, to review all of their policies, programs, and regulations to ensure they are consistent with equal treatment and prohibit sex discrimination broadly including that based upon sexual orientation and gender identity. If Agency policies, guidelines, and programs are found to be discriminatory, agencies will be asked to revise or rescind such documents and implement guidelines that prohibit discrimination based upon sex.
- Executive Order on Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform repealed President Trump’s March 23, 2018, and August 25, 2017, Presidential Memoranda banning transgendered individuals from serving in the U.S. military.
While these Executive Orders focus on federal agencies’ policies and programs, they serve as a preview for employers. The EEOC and OFCCP are primed to tackle issues of systemic discrimination, in all its forms, in the workplace. Both newly appointed EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows and OFCCP Director Jenny Yang are long-time worker advocates with decades of experience enforcing workplace civil rights laws.
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission voted, 3 to 2, to ban nearly all non-compete agreements. The ban is scheduled to become effective 120 days after it is published in the Federal Register (as of the date of this alert, it has not yet been published).
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its long-delayed final rule, Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees, increasing the salary threshold for overtime exemptions.
DOL released its final OT Rules which will become effective July 1, 2024.
The EEOC’s final Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) regulations were republished in the Federal Register on April 19 and will become effective on June 18th. The final regulations and guidance clarified and, in some cases, expanded on employers’ accommodation obligations for pregnancy related conditions from what the EEOC originally included in the proposed regulations.
On March 29, 2024, the Office of Management and Budget published revisions to federal data that covered entities must collect on race and ethnicity.
On January 29, 2024, on the 15th anniversary of the enactment of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Biden Administration announced a proposed regulation to prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors from using job applicant’s prior salary history when setting pay and to require federal contractors to disclose the expected salary range in job postings. The proposal was published in the Federal Register on January 30, 2024 and comments were due on April 1, 2024.
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission voted, 3 to 2, to ban nearly all non-compete agreements. The ban is scheduled to become effective 120 days after it is published in the Federal Register (as of the date of this alert, it has not yet been published).
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its long-delayed final rule, Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees, increasing the salary threshold for overtime exemptions.
DOL released its final OT Rules which will become effective July 1, 2024.
The EEOC’s final Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) regulations were republished in the Federal Register on April 19 and will become effective on June 18th. The final regulations and guidance clarified and, in some cases, expanded on employers’ accommodation obligations for pregnancy related conditions from what the EEOC originally included in the proposed regulations.
On March 29, 2024, the Office of Management and Budget published revisions to federal data that covered entities must collect on race and ethnicity.
On January 29, 2024, on the 15th anniversary of the enactment of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Biden Administration announced a proposed regulation to prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors from using job applicant’s prior salary history when setting pay and to require federal contractors to disclose the expected salary range in job postings. The proposal was published in the Federal Register on January 30, 2024 and comments were due on April 1, 2024.
OFCCP announced on March 25, 2025 that its contractor portal will open for federal contractor certification on April 1, 2024 and close on July 1, 2024.
Join our skilled presenters as they discuss the actions of the DOL (Wage & Hour; OFCCP; OSHA), the NLRB, and recent Court arguments confronting the Chevron doctrine, with a focus on the impact on the workplace.
On January 30, 2024, the Biden Administration published a proposed regulation to prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors from using job applicant’s prior salary history when setting pay and to require federal contractors to disclose the expected salary range in job postings.
On January 9, 2024, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Administration (“W&H”) issued its long-awaited final regulation, “Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
