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April 06, 2006
Bush Administration Proposes Axing Equal Opportunity Survey
by Bill Baue
The survey gathers tenure-track and compensation information by gender and race that is unavailable
elsewhere, prompting socially responsible investors and others to oppose the move.
SocialFunds.com --
First the Bush Administration proposes neutering the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), and now it is proposing completely
eradicating the Equal Opportunity (EO) Survey. Both TRI and the EO Survey function on the same
principal: sunshine disinfects best. Each calls on companies to disclose data--on polluting
emissions in the case of TRI, on affirmative action performance and pay by gender and race in the
case of the EO Survey--to
encourage responsible business practice so the government does not have to mandate it.
The Department of Labor (DOL) Office
of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) established the EO Survey in late 2000 and
administers it to non-construction companies that contract with the federal government, which
number upwards of 100,000. The OFCCP points to two studies it commissioned showing that the EO
Survey is not effective in identifying government contractors most likely to be out of compliance
with equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws.
"Of course I oppose the elimination of the
EO Survey," said a source closely tied to the OFCCP. "This was the first time in history that the
federal government had obtained compensation data on the establishment level."
"The real
intent of the survey was to 'encourage' contractors to police themselves and to correct any
disparities they found that were unexplainable before the government found them--I called the
survey 'EEO-EZ,' like the tax form," the source said. "The survey was strongly supported by the
Labor Department and the Clinton Administration as part of the Equal Pay Initiative, but when the
Bush Administration arrived, they made efforts to limit the survey by sending out only 10,000
surveys a year, in lieu of the 50,000 that we envisioned sending out to contractor
establishments--roughly half of the non-construction contractor universe."
Socially
responsible investing (SRI) firms rely on EO Survey data to assess company EEO performance, and
thus also oppose its eradication.
"What's troubling about the removal of the EO Survey is
that it's one more step away from greater disclosure," said Meredith Benton, research associate at
Walden Asset Management. "To simply
say, 'well, the survey is not currently accomplishing the goals we had in mind for it, therefore
we'll stop doing it,' seems shortsighted,"
The National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) voices its opposition even more
vehemently.
"This requirement has been the lynchpin in successfully encouraging compliance
with the Civil Rights Act of
1964," wrote Harry Alford, president and CEO of the NBCC, in a letter to the OFCCP
filed during the public comment period that ended late last month. "A reversal of this policy
would mean a redirection back to the status of Jim Crow."
The Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM), the HR industry organization
that has four African Americans on its board, supports the move by the OFCCP.
"SHRM has
opposed the Equal Opportunity (EO) survey since it was first proposed in 1999 by the Department of
Labor (DOL)," wrote R. Roosevelt Thomas, director-at-large of the SHRM board, in a letter
explaining its position to Walden. "SHRM supports the federal government's efforts to enforce
compliance with federal equal opportunity laws through the collection of data and information;
however, SHRM believes that employers should not be required to report information that does not
assist the federal agencies in ensuring fair employment practices."
"The Society continues
to believe that the survey unnecessarily duplicates existing requirements for affirmative action
programs and the current EEO-1 report administered by the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and
supported by SHRM," Dr. Thomas continued.
The EEO-1 report, which was established to help
fulfill the Civil Rights Act of 1964, requires all companies with more than 15 employees to file
EEO data annually, and thus has a much broader scope than the EO Survey, which applies only to
government contractors.
"While the EO Survey replicates the EEO-1 survey, it also takes in
unique datapoints on tenure track and payscale." Ms. Benton told SocialFunds.com.
Instead
of discontinuing the collection of this unique data, Walden recommends in its public comment letter
to OFCCP making the data public in aggregated form to allow contractors to benchmark performance
against their peers. This would help achieve one of the primary goals of the EO Survey of
improving self-awareness and encouraging self-policing. Ms Benton cites the case of climate
change, where the business community has argued that laws are not necessary, as companies know
better than lawmakers what solutions will work best for their own situations.
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SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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