Friend or Foe?

Recent months have delivered to employers what could be seen as a nasty one-two punch. First, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that it planned to focus its resources on "rooting out" systemic discrimination -- and unveiled proposed guidelines completely altering the way it will analyze potential compensation discrimination. The new guidelines, which require employers of a certain size to use a statistical tool called multiple regression analysis, will be enforced by a team of statisticians the OFCCP has newly hired to create the ominous-sounding Division of Statistical Analysis. Second, the recent Supreme Court decision allowing disparate impact claims in age cases could be interpreted as giving the green light to additional age-bias lawsuits by removing the hurdle of proving or even alleging intent. However, these changes will not necessarily have an adverse impact on employers, and may actually be helpful.