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Category: U.S. Department of Labor

  • After History of Discrimination, These Federal Contractors Fought to Hide Diversity Data

    People are walking in front of a display booth that reads DELL Technologies.

    As the only woman on a 10-person sales team at Dell Inc., Marsha Cipollone said she was pushed down and pushed out while less-experienced men were handed the plum accounts.

    Cipollone said she was denied the training and support her male colleagues received and was set up to fail. She was fired in 2017 and sued, alleging discrimination, according to court records. She said she settled with the company in 2018.

    That same year, the U.S. Labor Department’s anti-discrimination office also documented systemic inequality at the company, finding that women and Black employees earned less than men and White workers in similar positions.

    “Dell has very much typically been a White guy company,” Cipollone said.

    But exactly how diverse Dell is – how many women and people of color it employs at all levels of the organization and how that stacks up against other companies – remains obscured. 

    When the federal government released a historic data set last month detailing employee diversity at more than 19,000 of its contractors, Dell was one of more than 4,000 companies missing because they objected to the release. And the Labor Department’s anti-discrimination office – the same one that found inequality at Dell – has so far allowed the objectors to keep their diversity data secret.

    USA TODAY and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting compared the new diversity data with federal contractors receiving at least a billion dollars in contracts in 2020, according to federal spending records. A majority of those companies were left out of the data release, indicating they objected, despite accounting for more than $180 billion in federal spending in 2020. That includes at least a dozen companies – collectively reaping more than $100 billion – that paid to settle Labor Department findings of job discrimination over the last decade. 

    Companies that receive taxpayer-funded contracts are supposed to be held to a higher standard, and they’re subject to audits by the Labor Department office charged with making sure contractors provide equal employment opportunities.

    Dell agreed to pay nearly $10 million in back wages after repeated government findings of discrimination. The company called itself a “leader in pay equity and inclusion” and retained its status as a major federal contractor, with at least $2 billion in federal contracts to Dell or its subsidiaries in 2020 alone. 

    Dell didn’t respond directly to questions about why it objected to releasing its diversity numbers. The company pointed instead to its own curated diversity report, which says its “people leaders” are 72% male and 71% White and doesn’t include the standardized data that would allow it to be compared to similar companies, such as Apple, HP, IBM or Intel, which didn’t object. “We believe in fair treatment in the workplace, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation or religion,” the company said in an emailed statement.

    Secret Reports Stymie Comparison Across Industries

    Unlike subjective reports that can be manipulated to present a rosier picture of diversity, the data that federal contractors are required to submit to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shows the actual numbers of employees broken down by race and gender, for broad job categories like executives, professionals and service workers. The numbers allow for standardized comparison. They also show, for example, how many women of color are employed at different levels of a company, which many companies leave out of their customized reports. 

    Until recently, most companies didn’t share standardized numbers with the public. Some companies say the job categories on the reports are too broad or misleading, and their annual diversity reports better reflect their workforce. Others are reluctant to be cast in a negative light or invite litigation.

    In 2019, when Reveal sued the government for diversity data submitted by a group of tech companies, some argued they’d be vulnerable to rivals learning sensitive information or luring away their diverse talent. A federal judge disagreed, ruling that the diversity reports known as EEO-1s are not confidential business information. The Labor Department released those tech company records but has chosen not to apply that ruling to requests for more data. Several of those companies, including fitness company Fitbit and software company DocuSign, no longer object to the data’s release. Others, such as PayPal, initially fought the data release but now share the annual reports publicly.

    Last month, in response to more requests and a lawsuit from Reveal, the department released five years of diversity data from companies that didn’t object. An analysis of the data by USA TODAY found that federal contractors are failing to live up to the promise of equal opportunity, with White men dominating their executive ranks. Companies that did not fight public disclosure include defense contractors Raytheon and Boeing, which ranked among the highest recipients of federal contract dollars in 2020, as well as familiar names like Moderna, Pfizer, A&E Television Network and Sherwin-Williams.

    Equal Employment Opportunity: Who Rises to the Top?

    Type a company name, city or state in the search box above.
    Source: U.S. Department of Labor

    Labor Department spokesperson Edwin Nieves said the agency hasn’t allowed any companies to opt out of providing their EEO-1 numbers. Instead, Nieves said the department is required to give all contractors a chance to object and is withholding their data while evaluating those objections. Reveal is still pushing in court for the release of all contractors’ data.

    While the government gave contractors repeated opportunities to object over several months, lawyers warned companies to object or face the potentially brand-damaging consequences of transparency.

    Lawyers advising contractors on meeting government anti-discrimination requirements are often focused on minimum compliance, not transforming company culture, said Mary-Frances Winters, CEO of The Winters Group, which provides diversity consulting to companies.

    And company lawyers often don’t want to reveal anything that could put the company at risk. That can pit the diversity team against the legal team, Winters said.

    “We fight with lawyers all the time,” Winters said. “The DEI office is saying, ‘Let’s be transparent,’ because for them, it’s about, where are the opportunities to be better? The legal people, while they’re not necessarily against that, they’re saying, ‘Let’s not share our weaknesses.’ ”

    After Discrimination, Promises About Equity and Inclusion, But No Data

    As they gobble government money, big federal contractors are at different points on their diversity and transparency journey. Some, such as engineering and construction company Bechtel and health care company McKesson, didn’t respond to any questions. Government services contractor Amentum said it would disclose EEO-1 data at some point: “Target date is unknown,” a spokesperson said. And the pharmaceutical company Merck objected because the company considers those numbers confidential and not representative of the firm’s diversity efforts, said spokesperson Bob Josephson. But when asked about its objection, the company provided Reveal all five years of data anyway.

    Lockheed Martin’s data would have shown how many people of color the company employed at different levels back in 2017 and 2018, when the Labor Department’s anti-discrimination office found the defense contractor had discriminated against Asian, Black and Latino or Hispanic job seekers. But Lockheed objected to the Labor Department’s release. 

    In 2020, Lockheed denied wrongdoing and expressed its commitment to diversity, but agreed to pay $700,000 and hire 34 of the rejected applicants.

    In an emailed statement, the company noted that it posted its 2021 EEO-1 report online and that “our commitment to diversity and inclusion is a business imperative, helping to drive our innovation and global leadership.” Lockheed was awarded more than $51 billion in federal contracts in 2020, the biggest dollar figure to any single company.

    A Lockheed spokesperson didn’t explain why the company objected.

    Washington D.C.- based consulting firm called Chemonics International blocked releasing its own diversity data because it considers that confidential commercial information, said Chemonics spokesperson Martha James. 

    “Furthermore, we don’t frame our diversity, equity and inclusion strategy or measure our progress through the lens of EEO-1 data, which lacks the additional variables and context that allow us to fully analyze our workforce data,” James said in an email.

    The company launched a diversity effort in 2017 after a Labor Department audit flagged a time when the firm rejected every single one of 124 Black applicants for entry-level professional jobs. Chemonics agreed to pay $482,000 to the rejected job seekers and to hire eight of them. James said the company has been in compliance with anti-discrimination regulations ever since.

    Chemonics claims some progress: Its first diversity report says its ranks of people of color increased from 36% in 2017 to 40% in 2021, without a detailed breakdown. How many Black people does Chemonics employ and at what level in the company? The proof would be in EEO-1 numbers Chemonics wouldn’t disclose.

    Cipollone, the former Dell employee who sued for discrimination, said she didn’t see a lot of diversity there, so she’s not surprised Dell objected to releasing its numbers. But she thinks all companies should come clean and face the consequences.

    “It’s not 2000 anymore. It’s 2023,” she said. “You’re just going to have to take the hit for it and you’re going to have to get on board with everybody else.”

    This article was produced in collaboration with USA TODAY. Jessica Guynn contributed reporting. 

    This story was edited by Kate Howard and Doug Caruso and copy edited by Nikki Frick.

    Will Evans can be reached at wevans@revealnews.org, Jayme Fraser can be reached at jfraser@gannett.com, and Jessica Guynn at jguynn@usatoday.com. Follow Evans and Fraser on Twitter: @willCIR and @JaymeKFraser.

    After History of Discrimination, These Federal Contractors Fought to Hide Diversity Data is a story from Reveal. Reveal is a registered trademark of The Center for Investigative Reporting and is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • People of Color Were Promised Equal Opportunity. Federal Contractors Are Failing.

    A gray fighter plane comes down a runway as an attendant in the foreground uses hand signals for directions.

    Each year, thousands of companies land lucrative federal contracts, producing COVID-19 vaccines, manufacturing missile defense systems or serving hot meals. 

    But taking a slice of the hundreds of billions the U.S. government spends each year on goods and services comes with strings. 

    In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order holding federal contractors to a higher standard than other employers in ensuring that Black Americans and people of color have equal opportunities in hiring, training and promotions.

    Nearly six decades later, an analysis by USA TODAY of new data on federal contractors obtained by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting shows those firms are not living up to that commitment. Records were available for 19,000 companies, including 10,000 with data as recent as 2020.

    President Lyndon Johnson (right) listens to Rep. Emanuel Celler, D-N.Y., during a meeting with a group of civil rights leaders in Washington on April 28, 1966. Others at the meeting include Floyd McKissick (left), national director of the Congress of Racial Equality, and Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (seated third from left). Credit: Associated Press

    Employees of Color Cut Out of Top Jobs

    Deep racial divides cut through the workforces of federal contractors, which employ 1 in 5 American workers. 

    While the employee ranks in these companies have diversified, the top jobs that command the best pay and benefits have not, mirroring the private sector at large.

    White men dominate the executive ranks, holding 59% of those positions in 2020. They are the only demographic group that holds a higher proportion of top positions than of all other jobs, where 34% are White men.

    People of color are largely missing from the top assignments. A small fraction of executives are Black or Hispanic, and an even smaller number are women of color. Instead, they are concentrated at the lower levels of organizations in roles such as administrative assistants, technicians and laborers. 

    Even at companies where women and people of color hold management jobs at rates near their workforce participation, it does not translate into advancement into the C-Suite.

    Equal Employment Opportunity: Who Rises to the Top?

    Type a company name, city or state in the search box above.
    Source: U.S. Department of Labor

    While White male executives could almost fill Houston’s football stadium twice, Black female executives would fit into a few sideline sections. They hold roughly 1.7% of the top jobs at these companies.

    The second-widest representation gap is among Latinas or Hispanic women, with about 1.5% of executive positions. Asian women hold around 2% of executive roles.

    The fallout can be measured in stagnating income levels and widening wealth gaps as women of color face powerful headwinds when they try to rise above middle management.

    The USA TODAY and Reveal findings suggest federal contractors are not meeting their contractual obligation to combat historic patterns of discrimination and the federal government is doing too little to ensure they abide by the letter and spirit of the law, said J. Edward Kellough, professor of public administration and policy at the University of Georgia. 

    “Federal contractors are doing work for our government and it’s being funded by our government,” he said. “The government is supported by all the people, so their workforce ought to reflect all the people.”

    Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., whose office has conducted a corporate diversity survey of America’s largest companies since 2010, says the findings reveal “an abysmal record among federal contractors who have largely failed to improve and promote diversity at the highest levels of their organizations.”

    “This clearly demonstrates why Congress must do more to ensure all federal contractors that receive federal dollars can show data-backed progress in training, hiring, and promoting diverse candidates at all levels, especially executive leadership positions,” he said in an emailed statement.

    Corporations tout their commitment to a diverse workforce in glossy reports filled with photographs of smiling employees of all races. But for years they resisted disclosing their actual numbers of people of color and women they employ.

    That began to change after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. Under pressure from investors and employees, more companies opened themselves up to public scrutiny by voluntarily sharing the forms they are required to submit each year with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

    Lawsuit Reveals Years of Demographic Data on Employees and Executives

    Federal contractors are not only charged with opening up opportunities, but they also must submit proof through the EEO-1 forms that include the race, ethnicity and gender of employees broken down by job category.

    Until now, the government shielded that information from public view. It took a yearslong legal battle by Reveal to pry the information loose. 

    Last week, the Labor Department released data on more than 19,000 federal contractors employing as many as 19 million people. Thousands more have objected and their information remains in limbo pending further litigation. 

    About 4,000 companies had contracts in both 2016 and 2020. Two-thirds did not show improved diversity at the top in those five years; overall, the percentage of White executives dropped only about 2 percentage points. 

    There was some progress: The ranks of women of color as executives at those companies grew 30%, from about 4,800 to about 6,200.

    At that rate, however, it will take more than 50 years for women of color to occupy as many spots in the C-Suite as they do behind cash registers and in cubicles.  

    Nearly All-White Leadership in Companies with Big Federal Contracts

    Take ABM Industries, a facility services company employing more than 100,000 people, which scored $15 million in federal contracts in 2020. Of 460 executives, 78% were White, while White people held just over a fifth – 21% – of other jobs.

    Ninety-one percent of executives at debt collector GC Services were White in 2020, but White people accounted for about a third of its 7,000 workers. The company was awarded more than $478 million in federal contracts. 

    Like any other employer, federal contractors can’t discriminate based on race or gender. But as recipients of federal money, they have to go further than that under the standard set by Johnson: They are required to actively open doors for women, people of color, people with disabilities and veterans. 

    They must develop affirmative action plans to show how they will accomplish that. Federal contractors also can be audited by the Labor Department. Sometimes the department uses the type of demographic data released last week to support its investigations. 

    ‘I Wanted to Move Up in the Company’

    The NAACP and Communication Workers of America recently used EEO-1 data to highlight racial disparities at Maximus, a call center provider whose annual federal contracts exploded from $371 million in 2016 to $1.9 billion last year, in part because of the pandemic. The company had posted its 2021 EEO-1 report in response to shareholder pressure, according to the groups’ report. 

    The groups found that Black women and Latinas make up almost half of the lowest-ranking workers at the company, but only 5% of executives. 

    Daija Arrington, a 27-year-old mother of two, works for Maximus from her home in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, answering emails that people write to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking about COVID-19 and vaccines. After nine years in customer service, three of them at Maximus, she’s trying to climb the ladder to management.

    Daija Arrington
    Daija Arrington, who works for Maximus from her home in Hattiesburg, Miss. Credit: Courtesy of Daija Arrington

    “I have the experience and I have the heart and I have the knowledge,” she said, “and loving the place I was working, I wanted to move up in the company.”

    When she applied for Maximus supervisor positions several times, Arrington said she either heard nothing or was rejected without an explanation. She’s working on an online degree in business administration, hoping that will improve her chances. 

    Statistically, she faces an uphill battle: Most of her own supervisors have been White. 

    Arrington, who is Black, said she can’t help but think, “Nothing’s changed.” Calling out the company on disparities between leadership and other employees is important, she said: “It’s important to me because I deserve a seat at the table.”

    Maximus’ vice president of public relations, Eileen Cassidy Rivera, said the company is routinely audited by the government for its hiring practices and has passed every time.

    “Maximus is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we continue to make significant progress with our long-term commitment to build a strong and diverse workforce,” Rivera said in an emailed statement. “Maximus has an established career path for all contact center employees that we regularly promote with our program and teams.”

    Maximus does not appear in the data released by the federal government, and Rivera did not directly respond to questions about why the company objected to disclosure.

    ‘A Disservice to the Organization’

    Diversity researchers say racial inequality can derail careers.

    In 2017, Althea Woodson, a 27-year veteran Black engineer, sued Boeing because she said younger White male co-workers were given more opportunities to advance within the organization. 

    The case settled out of court in 2019 for undisclosed terms. 

    The company receives more than $20 billion a year in federal contracts. In 2020, 79% of its executives were White, a dramatic improvement from 89% five years earlier.

    Representatives from Boeing declined to comment on the company’s employment records.

    Homogeneity at the top also puts corporations at a disadvantage. As the nation grows more diverse, studies show greater diversity on leadership teams improves financial performance and increases innovation. 

    Ron Williams, the former Aetna CEO whose first job was washing cars on Chicago’s south side in the dead of winter, says corporations must cast a wider net and apply a broader lens to the executive skill set.

    “People have lots of capabilities to learn and to do great things if given the opportunity,” said Williams, who is among a small number of Black leaders to have run a Fortune 500 company. “To judge people by where they came from and to judge people by what they are currently doing is a disservice to them and a disservice to the organization.”

    Inequities can persist even after promotions. In 2017, a young female consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton sued her former employer, accusing it of gender discrimination. 

    After moving up to a management role, Raena Dhuy says she discovered all of her female subordinates were paid substantially less than their male counterparts. And she herself was vastly underpaid, she said.

    Booz Allen Hamilton denied the accusation and settled the case out of court. 

    Booz Allen Hamilton and its related consulting companies were paid more than $5 billion by federal agencies in 2020. That year, more than a quarter of executives were women, all of them White. 

    “Our business requires a diverse workforce that respects and champions inclusive thought, experiences, and backgrounds,” spokesperson Jessica Klenk wrote, noting the company has set specific goals for increasing diversity among senior leaders. “We remain committed to building and empowering diverse talent within our workforce and in our communities.”

    Dhuy said she cannot discuss details of her case because she signed a nondisclosure agreement as part of the settlement. But she said Americans should expect top federal contractors like the firm to pay their employees equitably. 

    “People give up their lives because they work so many hours and dedicate so much of their time to these companies,” Dhuy said. “I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t be treated equally both in pay and in general respect.” 

    Savannah Kuchar contributed reporting.

    This article was produced in collaboration with USA TODAY.

    People of Color Were Promised Equal Opportunity. Federal Contractors Are Failing. is a story from Reveal. Reveal is a registered trademark of The Center for Investigative Reporting and is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • No Longer a Trade Secret: Diversity Data From the Country’s Mega Contractors

    Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel at a conference table, flanked by a row of other White men in suits.

    Executives at companies that receive billions of dollars in federal contracts were less likely to reflect America’s diversity than their employees, according to a first-ever analysis by USA TODAY and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Some have been sued for workplace discrimination.

    In 2020, 21 companies each were paid more than $3 billion by the federal government, including defense contracting giants like Lockheed Martin and pharmaceutical companies like Moderna, one of the pioneers of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

    People of color were underrepresented among executives at these corporations compared with the rest of their workforce, the analysis showed. And women were less likely than men to break into top ranks, particularly those of color. Such disparities have long been documented by researchers and in the historically limited public information about demographics at American companies, including a USA TODAY database of S&P 100 corporations.

    Why does the diversity of companies receiving public dollars matter?

    The disparities highlight how tax dollars can reinforce gaps in wealth and opportunity for women and people of color. 

    Joseph Bryant Jr., who leads the Rainbow PUSH Silicon Valley diversity project founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said public money should advance equity in the country. 

    “Either the government should be giving more money to minority businesses or the government should be giving money to businesses that make diversity and inclusion a priority,” he said. 

    Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, who runs the Center for Employment Equity, said making the data public allows people to compare companies and hold them accountable for their hiring practices. He said diversity, equity and inclusion officers also could use the data to benchmark their companies’ performance against competitors.

    “I hope that in the long run this empowers the DEI staff in these firms to push their firms to do better,” said the sociology professor from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

    Why is this the first time this information has been available about federal contractors?

    The data is the largest trove of corporate diversity information ever made public after a yearslong legal battle by Reveal seeking the reports filed by government contractors each year to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It includes more than 19,000 federal contractors. More than 4,000 others have objected, and their information remains in limbo pending further litigation.

    The Department of Labor has argued it can’t release contractor diversity reports without notifying each company. It has so far sided with companies that argue the reports should be considered confidential business information – even though a federal judge has ruled those records should be made public. 

    Could this lead to more public information about company demographics?

    Researchers say Monday’s release could be a crucial step toward the public being able to see all summary diversity data collected on this federal form, not just the demographics of government contractors. 

    “This could be what breaks the logjam,” Tomaskovic-Devey said. “If the vast majority of firms were willing to release these data, what does that say about the defense that this is a trade secret? ”

    What does the new data show about the diversity of federal contractors?

    Many of the companies receiving the most money from federal contracts do work for the Department of Defense. 

    Topping that list in 2020 at more than $51 billion in public money is Lockheed Martin, the Washington, D.C.-based aerospace and security giant. That figure does not include its subsidiaries. For instance, Sikorsky Aircraft received $4.6 billion in federal contracts that year, ranking 11th. 

    Neither company appeared in the five years of data released Monday by federal officials. But Lockheed Martin has published a copy of its demographic report online since its 2020 filing. That document shows White, non-Hispanic or Latinx men held 68% of executive jobs despite being 34% of the U.S. workforce. They had no executives who were Pacific Islander or American Indian. And Hispanic or Latinx women held just two of the 356 executive jobs despite accounting for 7% of the U.S. workforce. 

    “At Lockheed Martin, we believe that our commitment to diversity and inclusion is a business imperative, helping to drive our innovation and global leadership,” wrote company spokesman Richard Sant.

    Our analysis found similar trends – White men holding a disproportionate number of top jobs and women of color having the least representation – at other companies receiving billions of dollars, such as Boeing, Raytheon, Humana, General Electric and Honeywell.  

    A Texas father-daughter attorney team of Elizabeth “BB” and Brian Sanford represent employees suing major defense contractors.

    Brian Sanford says the Pentagon should do more to audit employment relations from its largest contracts. 

    “Just hold them to the basic standard. It’s our tax dollars – they should be following the law,” Sanford said. “There is a lot of power in saying ‘You don’t get this $1 billion contract if you do this.’ They’ll listen to that.”

    What do companies have to say about this release?

    Few of the 21 companies that received the most federal contract money in 2020 returned a request for comment about their diversity track record. 

    Companies often argue that the reports must be kept secret because they could give competitors valuable information about their workforce, even allowing other firms to lure away diverse talent. 

    For example, Oracle has objected to the release of its data in the past by saying it could lead to a “raiding of minority or female employees,” though the company posted a more recent copy of its federal report online.

    This article was produced in collaboration with USA TODAY.

    This story was updated to include a comment from a Lockheed Martin spokesperson.

    Jessica Guynn contributed to this report.

    Have a tip? Reach Will Evans at wevans@revealnews.org or on Signal at (510) 255-0865; Jayme Fraser at jfraser@gannett.com or on Twitter at @jaymekfraser; Nick Penzenstadler at npenz@usatoday.com, on Twitter at @npenzenstadler or on Signal at (720) 507-5273; and Jessica Guynn at jguynn@usatoday.com.

    No Longer a Trade Secret: Diversity Data From the Country’s Mega Contractors is a story from Reveal. Reveal is a registered trademark of The Center for Investigative Reporting and is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.