Documenting correctly is critical in business. This principle is particularly true for government contractors and subcontractors – as the failure to correctly submit a document could result in the loss of an entire revenue stream for a company and their teams. Government contractors with 50 or more employees regularly submit Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) data to the government to maintain their eligibility for work. The EEO data includes demographic information on the race, age, and gender of a company’s employees.

The Center for Investigative Reporting filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain all contractors’ EEO data for the years 2016-2020. The federal government unsuccessfully opposed this request in court, citing confidentiality. As a result of the court’s mandate,  the government published details in the Federal Register surrounding its intention to make the EEO data public for thousands of companies – unless an objection is filed (and ultimately found applicable). The list of contractors identified for disclosure is listed here.

Contractors must file an objection no later than March 3, 2023. After this date, the government will publish an updated list of non-objectors while the government reviews the asserting objections. I recommend reviewing the government’s website on this process in order to analyze whether asserting an objection makes sense for you or your team.