On March 30, 2021, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA) hiring benchmark for 2021 would be 5.6 percent. This is a 0.1 percent reduction from the 5.7 percent benchmark in 2020—making it the seventh reduction of the benchmark since its inception in 2014. The new hiring benchmark is effective as of March 31, 2021.
VEVRAA requires contractors with written affirmative action programs (AAPs) to establish more individualized hiring benchmarks for protected veterans each year or adopt OFCCP’s annual national benchmark in their AAPs. Because of this requirement, contractors must compare the percentage of their employees who are protected veterans in each of their establishments to whichever hiring benchmark they use. Contractors can use these comparisons to assess the effectiveness of their outreach and recruitment efforts in the hiring of veterans.
Ogletree Deakins’ Affirmative Action and OFCCP Compliance Practice Group will continue to monitor developments from the agency and will update the Affirmative Action/OFCCP blog with additional news.
