As economic cycles go, the last 18 months have been a time of change for any company doing business with the federal government. Budgets have been cut across the board, and it often feels like the government is trying to get the same services for a fraction of the cost. For those of us working in Talent Acquisition or Human Resources, the pressure to do more with less has never been more tremendous.

It’s been said that on the first date, there are two things you don’t discuss: politics and religion. For generations, the same could be said for one topic in the workplace: how much money you make. But now, the Department of Labor is proposing a new rule that would “bar pay secrecy and encourage pay transparency among federal contractors”.

Article originally published in SHRM Online on October 23, 2014.

As I previously wrote in another blog article, Common Problems with the Service Contract Act (SCA) Requirements, the requirements under the SCA are difficult to navigate. I have recently received questions on and worked with multiple clients on helping them classify their SCA workers; so here I wanted to go a little deeper on how to properly map your workers to the Wage Determination.

President Obama issued an Executive Order on July 21 amending Executive Order 11246 for Equal Employment Opportunity, making “our government…just a little bit fairer”. Executive Order 11246, signed by President Johnson in 1965, prohibits government contractors doing $10,000 worth of government business on an annual basis from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In addition, the Executive Order requires those contractors to take affirmative action ensuring equal employment is afforded in all aspects of employment (this is why you have an Affirmative Action Program (AAP)).

As a government contractor, there are what seem like endless and ever changing requirements that you must comply with. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) serves as a guidebook to government contractors and outlines the rules, regulations, and processes that must be followed by government contractors throughout the acquisition planning, contract formation, and contract administration processes when the government is purchasing (acquiring) goods and services. The FAR is easy to overlook as an HR professional as many of the regulations pertain to the contracts and finance departments within your organization; however, one aspect of the FAR that pertains to the Human Resource department of government contractors is the Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct[1].