New Trump policy makes it easier for big tech to discriminate, insiders say

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/08/trump-administration-labor-google-lawsuit-gender-pay-gap

Sam Levin in Oakland
Fri 8 Feb 2019 06.00 EST

The Trump administration is making it easier for tech companies to discriminate against workers, with a policy that impedes efforts to close the gender pay gap in Silicon Valley, current and former US labor officials said.

A new US Department of Labor (DoL) “transparency” directive is forcing DoL officials to disclose preliminary details about anti-discrimination investigations to the targets of the inquiries, which, current and former DoL employees say, enables those companies to evade enforcement efforts and conceal potential violations while cases are ongoing. It’s as if the FBI or the Internal Revenue Service had to give an advanced heads-up to entities they were investigating, the DoL employees say.

A longtime DoL employee not authorized to speak publicly described the policy as a “giveaway to government contractors”, adding that “transparency” was a misnomer: “The objective of this directive is to try to weaken [DoL] enforcement.”

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The changes could be particularly beneficial for Silicon Valley firms, which make hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars each yearby providing a range of software products and other services to federal agencies. The new directive effectively helps those tech corporations avoid scrutiny, labor experts warn, despite growing recognition that white men in tech make higher salaries than women and minorities doing equivalent work – in violation of equal pay laws.

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