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OMB and DoL Direct Agencies to Appoint Labor Compliance Advisors Pursuant to "Fair Pay" EO

Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.09.15

On March 5, OMB and DoL circulated a Memorandum to federal agencies regarding the "Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces" Executive Order (previously discussed here, and here), providing "guidance" with respect to the Labor Compliance Advisor role created by the EO, and directing agencies to designate within 90 days a senior-level official to serve as LCA. The memo, which reiterates the troubling scope and nature of the new position (i.e., "providing assistance to contracting officers" during the procurement process, "advising … contracting officers and other agency officials regarding recommended actions to be taken in response to labor law violations," and "sending any relevant information to suspending and debarring officials"), also states that GSA will create a new web site for the labor compliance reporting requirements identified in the EO, and indicates that FAR Council regulatory action and additional DoL guidance will be forthcoming.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 06.12.26

DOJ Guidance Backs Away From Disparate Impact Liability

On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”...