On September 30, 2016, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) advanced a proposal with a notice to the Federal Register to create a new racial or ethnic category.
Currently people from the Middle East and North Africa are considered “white” in the U.S. Census. The proposed change could add a new category to the list. Middle Eastern or North Africa, or MENA, is broader in concept than Arab (an ethnicity) or Muslim (a religion). It would include anyone from a region of the world stretching from Morocco to Iran, including Syrian and Coptic Christians, Israeli Jews and other religious minorities.
What will the data will be used for once collected? According to the OMB, the data will be used for:
So what does this mean for Federal Contractors? Well, we have plenty of time to think about it as it would not go into effect until the 2020 Census. If this passes contractors will most likely need to change their paper and online self-id forms to include the new race categories and re-survey the workforce.
The good news is that maybe with these changes, the OFCCP and the EEOC will sync their race/ethnicity categories. Only time will tell.
By Rosemary Cox, Senior Consultant at DCI Consulting Group