STATEMENT: Department of Labor Abandons Civil Rights Enforcement

April 17. 2025

For Immediate Release
Apr 17, 2025

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

Read a joint statement we issued with other national workers’ rights groups.

The following is a statement from Deborah J. Vagins, National Campaign Director & Director of Equal Pay Today, a project of Equal Rights Advocates, on the Trump Administration’s assault on critical worker protections and civil rights enforcement at DOL

April 17, 2025 – On April 16, the U.S. Department of Labor placed hundreds of staff from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) — a critical civil rights enforcement office in the Department of Labor — on administrative leave, effectively shuttering nearly every single OFCCP office across the country. 

This is a dangerous escalation in the Trump Administration’s systematic dismantling of key worker protections at the Department of Labor and other civil rights enforcement agencies. OFCCP is tasked with monitoring and enforcing civil rights protections for employees of federal contractors, which make up approximately one-fifth of the American workforce. 

By gutting this office and halting investigations, compliance reviews, and preventative guidance, this administration has created a dangerous accountability vacuum.

The current cuts follow a pattern that began in January when President Trump eliminated Executive Order 11246, an order that had been in place at OFCCP for 60 years, throughout Republican and Democratic administrations, which required the government to actively combat discrimination and create employment opportunities. It prevented taxpayer dollars from underwriting discrimination in federal contracting. Even with this enormous setback, the agency retained important responsibilities to safeguard opportunities for veterans and individuals with disabilities in the contracting workforce – responsibilities now practically impossible to fulfill with a decimated staff.

This move will compound gender-based pay disparities, which have begun to increase for the first time in 20 years, with female workers now receiving only 75% of what male counterparts are paid.

For five decades, Equal Rights Advocates has championed workplace fairness, and we’ve witnessed how government oversight of federal contracting practices provides essential protection for vulnerable workers. We strongly urge Secretary of Labor Chavez-DeRemer to reverse these destructive changes immediately. These short-sighted decisions threaten to undermine crucial progress made over generations toward creating fair workplaces. 

Equal Rights Advocates stands united with numerous partner organizations to challenge these harmful policies.

For media inquiries, contact Blake Case: [email protected] or (601) 832-6079.