Initial impact of Section 503 rules: Understanding good employer practices and the trends in disability violations among federal contractors: Final Report

Funding was provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL‐EO-30273-17-60-5-36. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government. 100% percentage of the total costs of the project or program is financed with Federal funds, for a total of 249,999 dollars.In March 2014, new regulations went into effect related to the implementation of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (Section 503), setting new requirements for federal contractors and subcontractors, related to non-discrimination and affirmative action in the employment of qualified individuals with disabilities. The overall goal of this project is to understand the initial impact of these regulations on employer practices and consequently on the employment environment for individuals with disabilities. The study uses both existing administrative and field survey data to achieve three supporting objectives: 1) understand the characteristics of firms with and without evidence of a disability violation under EEO laws; 2) examine the initial impact of changes to Section 503 regulations on the observed patterns of employers with disability violations; and 3) build an understanding of effective practice and policy as contractors have initially responded to Section 503 regulations.U.S. Department of Labor, Labor Research and Evaluation Grant