[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 5, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25747-25749]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-10398]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Upon Written Request Copies Available From: U.S. Securities and 
Exchange Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE., 
Washington, DC 20549-2736.

New Information Collection:
    Contract Standard for Contractor Workforce Inclusion; SEC File 
No. S7-02-15, OMB Control No. 3235-XXXX.

    Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities and Exchange 
Commission (the Commission) has submitted to the Office of Management 
and Budget a request to approve the collection of information discussed 
below.
    Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer 
Protection Act of 2010 (the Dodd-Frank Act) provided that certain 
agencies, including the Commission, establish an Office of Minority and 
Women Inclusion (OMWI).\1\ Section 342(c)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Act 
requires the OMWI Director to include in the Commission's procedures 
for evaluating contract proposals and hiring service providers a 
written statement that the contractor shall ensure, to the maximum 
extent possible, the fair inclusion of women and minorities in the 
workforce of the contractor and, as applicable, subcontractors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ 12 U.S.C. 5452.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In addition, section 342(c)(3)(A) requires the OMWI Director to 
establish standards and procedures for determining whether an agency 
contractor or subcontractor ``has failed to make a good faith effort to 
include minorities and women'' in its workforce. Section 
342(c)(3)(B)(i) provides that if the OMWI Director

[[Page 25748]]

determines that a contractor has failed to make good faith efforts, the 
Director shall recommend to the agency administrator that the contract 
be terminated. Upon receipt of such a recommendation, section 
342(c)(3)(B)(ii) provides that the agency administrator may terminate 
the contract, make a referral to the Office of Federal Contract 
Compliance Programs of the Department of Labor, or take other 
appropriate action.
    The Commission developed a Contract Standard for Contractor 
Workforce Inclusion (Contract Standard) to implement the requirements 
of section 342(c) of the Dodd-Frank Act. The Contract Standard, which 
will be included in the Commission's solicitations and resulting 
contracts for services with a dollar value of $100,000 or more, 
contains a ``collection of information'' within the meaning of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act. The Contract Standard requires that a 
Commission contractor provide documentation, upon request from the OMWI 
Director, to demonstrate that it has made good faith efforts to ensure 
the fair inclusion of minorities in its workforce and, as applicable, 
to demonstrate its covered subcontractors have made such good faith 
efforts. The documentation requested may include, but is not limited 
to: (1) The total number of employees in the contractor's workforce, 
and the number of employees by race, ethnicity, gender, and job title 
or EEO-1 job category (e.g., EEO-1 Report(s)); (2) a list of covered 
subcontract awards under the contract that includes the dollar amount 
of each subcontract, date of award, and the subcontractor's race, 
ethnicity, and/or gender ownership status; (3) the contractor's plan to 
ensure the fair inclusion of minorities and women in its workforce, 
including outreach efforts; and (4) for each covered subcontractor, the 
information requested in items 1 and 3 above. The OMWI Director will 
consider the information submitted in evaluating whether the contractor 
or subcontractor has complied with its obligations under the Contract 
Standard.
    The information collection would be mandatory. The Commission 
estimates that 170 contractors \2\ would be subject to the Contract 
Standard. Approximately 120 of these contractors have 50 or more 
employees, while about 50 contractors have fewer than 50 employees. For 
the estimated 120 contractors that have 50 or more employees, the 
Commission estimates that the information collection under the Contract 
Standard would impose no new recordkeeping burdens. Such contractors 
are generally subject to recordkeeping and reporting requirements under 
the regulations implementing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act \3\ and 
Executive Order 11246 (``EO 11246'').\4\ Contractors that have 50 or 
more employees (and a contract or subcontract of $50,000 or more) are 
required to maintain records on the race, ethnicity, gender, and EEO-1 
job category of each employee under Department of Labor regulations 
implementing EO 11246.\5\ The regulations implementing EO 11246 also 
require contractors that have 50 or more employees (and a contract or 
subcontract of $50,000 or more) to develop and maintain a written 
program, which describes the policies, practices, and procedures that 
the contractor uses to ensure that applicants and employees receive 
equal opportunities for employment and advancement.\6\ In lieu of 
developing a separate workforce inclusion plan, a contractor would be 
permitted to submit its existing written program prescribed by the EO 
11246 regulations as part of the documentation that demonstrates the 
contractor's good faith efforts to ensure the fair inclusion of 
minorities and women in its workforce. Thus, approximately 120 
contractors are already required to maintain the information that may 
be requested under the Contract Standard.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \2\ Unless otherwise specified, the term ``contractors'' refers 
to contractors and subcontractors.
    \3\ 42 U.S.C. 2000e, et seq.
    \4\ Executive Order 11246, 30 FR 12,319 (Sept. 24, 1965).
    \5\ See 41 CFR 60-1.7.
    \6\ See 41 CFR part 60-2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The estimated 50 contractors that employ fewer than 50 employees 
are required under the regulations implementing EO 11246 to maintain 
records showing the race, ethnicity and gender of each employee. The 
Commission believes that these contractors also keep job title 
information during the normal course of business. However, contractors 
that have fewer than 50 employees may not have the written program 
prescribed by the EO 11246 regulations or similar plan that could be 
submitted as part of the documentation to demonstrate their good faith 
efforts to ensure the fair inclusion of minorities and women in their 
workforces. Accordingly, contractors with fewer than 50 employees may 
have to create a plan to ensure workforce inclusion of minorities and 
women.
    In order to estimate the burden on contractors associated with 
creating a workforce inclusion plan, the Commission considered the 
burden estimates for developing the written programs required under the 
regulations implementing EO 11246.\7\ As there is no regulatory 
blueprint for a workforce inclusion plan, and contractors creating a 
workforce inclusion plan are not required to perform the same types of 
analyses required for the written programs prescribed by the EO 11246 
regulations, the Commission believes that to develop a workforce 
inclusion plan contractors with fewer than 50 employees would require 
approximately a third of the hours that contractors of similar size 
spend on developing the written programs required under the EO 11246 
regulations. Accordingly, the Commission estimates that contractors 
would spend about 24 hours of employee resources to develop a workforce 
inclusion plan. The one-time implementation burden annualized would be 
400 hours. After the initial development, the Commission estimates that 
each contractor with fewer than 50 employees would spend approximately 
10 hours each year updating and maintaining its workforce inclusion 
plan. The Commission estimates that the annualized recurring 
recordkeeping burden associated with the information collection would 
be 350 hours. Thus, the Commission estimates that the annual 
recordkeeping burden for such contractors would total 750 hours.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \7\ According to the Supporting Statement for the OFCCP 
Recordkeeping and Requirements-Supply Service, OMB Control No. 1250-
003 (``Supporting Statement''), it takes approximately 73 burden 
hours for contractors with 1-100 employees to develop the initial 
written program required under the regulations implementing EO 
11246. We understand the quantitative analyses prescribed by the 
Executive Order regulations at 41 CFR part 60-2 are a time-consuming 
aspect of the written program development. As there is no 
requirement to perform these types of quantitative analyses in 
connection with a workforce inclusion plan under the proposed 
Contract Standard, we believe the workforce inclusion plan will take 
substantially fewer hours to develop. The Supporting Statement is 
available at reginfo.gov.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Contract Standard also requires contractors to maintain 
information about covered subcontractors' ownership status, workforce 
demographics, and workforce inclusion plans. Contractors would request 
this information from their covered subcontractors, who would have an 
obligation to keep workforce demographic data and maintain workforce 
inclusion plans because the substance of the Contract Standard would be 
included in their subcontracts. Based on data describing recent 
Commission subcontractor activity, the Commission believes that very 
few subcontractors will have subcontracts

[[Page 25749]]

under Commission service contracts with a dollar value of $100,000 or 
more.\8\ These subcontractors may already be subject to similar 
recordkeeping requirements as principal contractors. Consequently, the 
Commission believes that any additional requirements imposed on 
subcontractors would not significantly add to the burden estimates 
discussed above.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \8\ A search of subcontract awards on the usaspending.gov Web 
site showed that four subcontractors in FY 2012 and three 
subcontractors in FY 2013 had subcontracts of $100K or more. See 
data on subcontract awards available at http://usaspending.gov.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    With respect to the reporting burden, the Commission estimates that 
it would take all contractors on average approximately one hour to 
retrieve and submit to the OMWI Director the documentation specified in 
the Contract Standard. The Commission expects to request documentation 
from up to 100 contractors each year and therefore the Commission 
estimates the total annual reporting burden would be 100 hours.
    The estimated annualized cost to contractors for the recordkeeping 
and reporting burden hours resulting from the information collection 
requirement under the Contract Standard is based on Bureau of Labor 
Statistics data in the publication ``Employer Costs for Employee 
Compensation'' (2014), which lists total compensation for management, 
professional, and related occupations as $55 per hour and 
administrative support as $25.\9\ With respect to the recordkeeping 
burden for developing, updating, and maintaining the workforce 
inclusion plan, the Commission estimates that 75 percent of the burden 
hours would be management, professional, and related occupations and 25 
percent would be administrative support. The Commission estimates that 
the annualized cost related to the burden hours for the initial 
development of a workforce inclusion plan is $19,000, and that the 
annualized cost for the recurring recordkeeping burden is $16,625. 
Thus, the Commission estimates that the annualized recordkeeping cost 
related to compliance with the Contract Standard is $35,625 (50 
contractors x $712.50 per contractor).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \9\ For purposes of these calculations, the average salaries of 
$54.95 and $24.76 have been rounded up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As for the reporting burden, the Commission estimates that 75 
percent of the burden hours for retrieving and submitting documentation 
to the OMWI Director would be administrative support and 25 percent 
would be professional, management, and related occupations. The 
Commission estimates that the annual reporting cost related to 
compliance with the Contract Standard is $3250 (100 responses each year 
x $32.50 per response).\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \10\ The estimates of average burden hours and associated costs 
are made solely for the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act and 
are not derived from a survey or study of the paperwork burdens and 
costs associated with the proposed information collection.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    On February 13, 2015, the Commission published for public comment a 
notice of the proposed Contract Standard, which also included the 
notice required under the Paperwork Reduction Act and allowed the 
public 60 days to submit comments.\11\ The Commission received no 
comments on the proposed information collection.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \11\ See Contract Standard for Contractor Workforce Inclusion 
and Request for Public Comment Release No. 34-74239 (February 10, 
2015), 80 FR 8119 (February 13, 2015).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Written comments continue to be invited on: (a) Whether this 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the agency, including whether the information will 
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of 
the burden imposed by the collection of information; (c) ways to 
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; 
and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
respondents, including through the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number.
    Background documentation for this information collection may be 
viewed at the following Web site, www.reginfo.gov. Please direct 
general comments to the following persons: (i) Desk Officer for the 
Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Management and Budget, 
Room 10102, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503 or send 
an email to Shagufta Ahmed at [email protected]; and (ii) 
Pamela Dyson, Chief Information Officer, Securities and Exchange 
Commission, c/o Remi Pavlik-Simon, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 
20549 or send an email to: [email protected]. Comments must be 
submitted within 30 days of this notice.

    Dated: April 29, 2015.
Brent J. Fields,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2015-10398 Filed 5-4-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P