Paul Debolt, Christopher Griesedieck, and Kelly Boppe published “New Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council Pay Equity Rule Puts Contractors Between a Rock and a Hard Place” in the May issue of the Government Contracting Law Report. The following is an excerpt:
The Biden administration recently announced a series of pay equity and transparency initiatives. One initiative comes in the form of a proposed rule2 to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to (1) prohibit contractors and subcontractors from seeking and considering information about job applicants’ compensation history when making employment decisions for certain positions, and (2) require contractors and subcontractors to disclose the compensation to be offered to the hired applicant in job announcements for certain positions. The FAR proposal, however, poses the potential for confusion and compliance issues because it appears to conflict with existing requirements for federal contractors to propose realistic labor rates and pay employees certain minimum wages.