Photo of Laura A. Mitchell

Laura Mitchell is a principal in the Denver office of Jackson Lewis P.C. and leads the firm’s Workplace Analytics and Preventive Strategies Pay Equity subgroup. She partners with employers to evaluate, develop and implement policies and practices that ensure workplace fairness while mitigating legal risk. Laura is a guiding force in the firm’s most specialized and technical practice areas where she leverages an analytics-focused approach to partner with her clients in building legally compliant programs around which they can anchor their workplaces achieving productivity and stability.

Laura understands that creating a competitive advantage for employers in today’s workplace involves using a data-driven approach to counsel companies on the development of proactive and equitable non-discriminatory practices in hiring, promotions, separations and pay—and where advancements in technology can create both opportunities for efficiencies and risk that can be measured. Committed to putting her clients’ organizational goals first and foremost while balancing legal risk, Laura views herself as an extension of her clients’ team, responsible for providing proactive guidance and engaging in transparent, ongoing communication. Staying the course with employers across their organizational journey while balancing legal compliance obligations throughout their employees’ lifecycle ensures Laura’s position as a go-to resource.

Laura works with companies across all industries—both new and well-established multi-national organizations of all sizes—to realize the combined vision of legal compliance, increased productivity and economic growth enhanced by a focus on pay equity.  As part of the pay equity journey, she advises employers on the evolving pay transparency landscape, working to align compliant practices with the practical realities of the business world.

Laura partners closely with government contractors to understand, implement and demonstrate compliance with their EEO regulatory and compliance obligations. She also works closely with non-government contractor clients to conduct risk assessments of their programs, policies, and training to align with federal and state anti-discrimination requirements.

Laura is the editor and a principal contributor of the GovCon Employment Exchange blog and presents on pay equity and government contractor obligations. To round out her days, Laura enjoys spending time with her family and friends attending sports events, working out, riding her bike, playing pickleball and taking in Colorado’s incomparable sunsets.

On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, OFCCP has published proposed modifications to the Scheduling Letter and accompanying Itemized Listing. The deadline to submit comments on the proposed changes is January 20, 2023.

As a reminder, while OFCCP gives advance notice of audits through the CSAL, a contractor’s audit does not commence until

As we previously reported, in 2019 Will Evans from The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) submitted a FOIA request to OFCCP seeking all Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Reports filed by federal contractors from 2016-2020.  In response to the request, OFCCP published notice in the Federal Register pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act notifying

Last week, the EEOC and OFCCP announced the replacement of the “EEO is the Law” poster in favor of a new poster called the “Know Your Rights” poster.  Both EEOC and OFCCP have updated their websites accordingly.  Importantly, as of the date of this blog post, DOL had not, yet, updated its workplace poster

Since 2013, OFCCP has revised its Functional Affirmative Action Plan (FAAP) Directive several times, most recently to make it easier for covered federal contractors and subcontractors to obtain its permission to create AAPs by functional unit. 

AAP regulations require establishment AAPs but allow for the option to prepare plans by separate “functional units,” provided

OFCCP has announced it is extending the deadline for contractors to respond to the Agency’s August 19, 2022 Notice of Request Under the Freedom of Information Act for Federal Contractors’ Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Report Data.  The new deadline by which affected contractors need to submit objections is October 19, 2022 to “ensure that Covered

OFCCP’s regulations were designed for the typical private sector contractor.  As a result, higher educational institutions, particularly colleges and universities, often struggle with fitting their “round pegs” processes into the “square holes” that OFCCP designed.  OFCCP’s Contractor Portal is no exception.

The Portal identifies employer establishments based on EEO-1 Reports filed from 2018.  But higher