Federal Agencies Could Improve Oversight of Equal Employment Opportunity Requirements

This report examines (1) trends in the gender, racial, and ethnic composition of the technology sector workforce; and (2) oversight of technology companies' compliance with equal employment and affirmative action requirements. The estimated percentage of minority technology workers increased from 2005 to 2015, but GAO found that no growth occurred for female and Black workers, whereas Asian and Hispanic workers made statistically significant increases (see figure). Further, female, Black, and Hispanic workers remain a smaller proportion of the technology workforce—mathematics, computing, and engineering occupations—compared to their representation in the general workforce. These groups have also been less represented among technology workers inside the technology sector than outside it. In contrast, Asian workers were more represented in these occupations than in the general workforce. Stakeholders and researchers GAO interviewed identified several factors that may have contributed to the lower representation of certain groups, such as fewer women and minorities graduating with technical degrees and company hiring and retention practices. GAO makes 6 recommendations:

1. Recommendation: The Chair of the EEOC should develop a timeline to complete the planned effort to clean Integrated Mission System data for a one-year period and add missing industry code data. 

Agency Affected: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

2. Recommendation: The Director of OFCCP should analyze internal process data from closed evaluations to better understand the cause of delays that occur during compliance evaluations and make changes accordingly. 

Agency Affected: Department of Labor: Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs

3. Recommendation: The Director of OFCCP should take steps toward requiring contractors to disaggregate demographic data for the purpose of setting placement goals in the affirmative action program (AAP) rather than setting a single goal for all minorities, incorporating any appropriate accommodation for company size. For example, OFCCP could provide guidance to contractors to include more specific goals in their AAP or assess the feasibility of amending their regulations to require them to do so.

Agency Affected: Department of Labor: Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs

4. Recommendation: The Director of OFCCP should assess the quality of the methods used by OFCCP to incorporate consideration of disparities by industry into its process for selecting contractor establishments for compliance evaluation. It should use the results of this assessment in finalizing its procedures for identifying contractor establishments at greatest risk of noncompliance. 

Agency Affected: Department of Labor: Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs

5. Recommendation: The Director of OFCCP should evaluate the current approach used for identifying entities for compliance review and determine whether modifications are needed to reflect current workplace structures and locations or to ensure that subcontractors are included. (Recommendation 5)

Agency Affected: Department of Labor: Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs

6. Recommendation: The Director of OFCCP should evaluate the Functional Affirmative Action Program to assess its usefulness as an effective alternative to an establishment-based program, and determine what improvements, if any, could be made to better encourage contractor participation. (Recommendation 6)

Agency Affected: Department of Labor: Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs