Patricia Shiu, Director the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), recently announced major changes at the agency’s approach to compensation monitoring and pursuing the White House Pay Equity Initiative. Specifically, Shiu announced that OFCCP will rescind its 2006 Guidance on Wage Discrimination and will issue an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to solicit contractor’s ideas and views about the new wage data collection instrument.

In a recent interview on federal news radio, Shiu announced that OFCCP is “rescinding our 2006 guidance [on wage-based discrimination] … and we are reexamining [the guidance].” The compensation standards and guidelines, released under the Bush Administration, established OFCCP’s protocol for enforcing systemic compensation discrimination. The guidance established how OFCCP would monitor compliance efforts and how contractors could be proactive in rectifying pay disparities.

Shiu also announced that the OFCCP is “looking to put together a new data collection instrument.” Unlike the equal opportunity (EO) survey of the past, the new instrument “is something that is going to be new. It is going to be effective and it is going to be strategic and is going to be the result of all of the conversations that I [Shiu] have had with our stakeholders, including large employers who I know are very concerned about this [data collection process].”

Shiu stated that the agency wants a wage data collection instrument that is going to assist OFCCP in targeting contractors that are “persistent and egregious violators.” Before any rules are proposed, Shui stated the OFCCP will publish an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) where the agency will ask contractors question to solicit information ahead of the proposed rule to produce a “well reasoned” proposed rule.