Late last month, the Senate referred the Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Appropriations Act to the Senate Committee on Appropriations for consideration. The House of Representatives passed its version (H.R. 4870) on June 20 with substantial bipartisan support, 340-73, after considering 80 different amendments. Since this is a wage and hour blog, you can

Obama.jpgRecently, we told you about President Obama’s Executive Order increasing the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $10.10 per hour. Tomorrow, President Obama is expected to announce that he will sign two new executive orders that will apply to federal contractors: (1) one order will forbid retaliation by federal contractors against employees that discuss their compensation with other employees; and (2) the other order will require federal contractors to maintain certain records on compensation organized by race and gender, and report that data to the federal government. These Orders are being issued to further advance the Administration’s cause of equal pay for women.

Approximately 25% of the U.S. workforce engages in federal contracting at least in part, including large, well-known businesses like Northrop Grumman and Boeing and a host of smaller manufacturers, suppliers, and service companies. Unlike the recent minimum wage order, which applied only to new and certain renewed contracts because of the change in compensation rates, these orders could be implemented immediately and apply to all contractors, making these orders’ potential impact much wider.Continue Reading Obama Administration Expected to Expand Wage and Hour Protections, Disclosures for Federal Contractors’ Employees