Why the High Road Still Matters: Equal Opportunity in a Shifting Landscape
On January 21, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order repealing affirmative action requirements for federal contractors, sparking questions and uncertainty for many businesses. If you’re a small business owner, you might be asking yourself:
Does this mean I don’t have to worry about compliance anymore?
How does this impact my hiring practices or the culture I’ve worked to build?
Does promoting fairness still matter if it’s no longer required?
Should I make changes to my policies, or is it better to stay the course?
How does this impact me and my small Business?
The answers, as always, depend on your business and your values. But for most small businesses, this repeal won’t change much. If you weren’t subject to these requirements before, you won’t suddenly be impacted now. And if you were, this is a moment to reflect on your approach to workplace fairness and opportunity—not just as a matter of compliance, but as a core part of who you are as an employer.
At Peopleish, we believe there’s more to HR than simply meeting legal requirements. Compliance matters—there’s no question about that. But building a workplace where fairness, decency, and opportunity thrive goes beyond what the law requires. It’s about creating a culture that reflects your values and sets your business apart.
Equal Opportunity Isn’t About Lowering Standards
The presidential order focuses on ending affirmative action programs tied to federal contracts and addressing concerns about race- and sex-based preferences. But let’s be clear: inclusivity does not mean giving someone a job they’re unqualified for or promoting someone just to meet a quota.
True inclusivity is about giving everyone an equal opportunity to earn their place based on merit, skills, and hard work.
Think about it:
When you ensure fairness in your hiring processes, you’re creating a pathway for the best candidates to shine.
When you define promotion criteria clearly, you’re leveling the playing field for every employee, regardless of their background.
It’s not about lowering the bar. It’s about making sure everyone has a fair shot at reaching it.
Decency Is Good Business
Even though this executive order eliminates certain affirmative action requirements, we encourage businesses to continue promoting fairness and opportunity—not because you have to, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Why? Because decency is good business. When employees are treated fairly, it impacts more than just workplace morale:
Culture: A fair and inclusive workplace fosters trust, loyalty, and collaboration.
Reputation: How the public sees your brand matters, and being known as a decent employer helps build goodwill.
Talent: The best and brightest want to work for companies where they know they’ll be treated fairly.
Becoming the kind of employer that values decency and merit isn’t just good ethics—it’s a smart business strategy.
Why This Shouldn’t Change Anything for You
If your workplace already promotes fairness and opportunity, this executive order has no bearing on your core values or operations. Whether you’re a federal contractor or not, doing the right thing isn’t about being told you have to—it’s about creating a business where people want to work because they know they’ll be treated fairly.
Take this moment to ask yourself:
Are your hiring processes fair and inclusive?
Do your employees believe they have an equal opportunity to succeed and advance?
Are you creating a workplace culture that reflects the kind of employer you want to be?
If the answers are yes, you’re already ahead of the curve.
It’s More Than Compliance—It’s About Leadership
At Peopleish, we work with businesses that want to go beyond the bare minimum. They want to lead. They want to build workplaces where fairness and opportunity are foundational values, not just compliance checkboxes.
Compliance matters, but culture is what sets you apart. Be the kind of employer people want to work for—a leader in fairness, decency, and opportunity. Build a workplace where merit, hard work, and collaboration thrive.
The repeal of affirmative action requirements for federal contractors doesn’t change the fact that equal opportunity matters. It’s not about politics—it’s about principles. It’s about being an employer that values fairness and leads by example.
Take the high road—and we’ll be here to help you every step of the way.
For clarity this post is Referencing the following Executive Order which was published on whitehouse.gov as of the date of this post:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/
ENDING ILLEGAL DISCRIMINATION AND
RESTORING MERIT-BASED OPPORTUNITY
January 21, 2025
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. Longstanding Federal civil-rights laws protect individual Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. These civil-rights protections serve as a bedrock supporting equality of opportunity for all Americans. As President, I have a solemn duty to ensure that these laws are enforced for the benefit of all Americans.
Yet today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) or “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.
Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system. Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.
These illegal DEI and DEIA policies also threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities. Yet in case after tragic case, the American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.
The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws. The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination.
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to protect the civil rights of all Americans and to promote individual initiative, excellence, and hard work. I therefore order all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements. I further order all agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.
Sec. 3. Terminating Illegal Discrimination in the Federal Government. (a) The following executive actions are hereby revoked:
(i) Executive Order 12898 of February 11, 1994 (Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations);
(ii) Executive Order 13583 of August 18, 2011 (Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce);
(iii) Executive Order 13672 of July 21, 2014 (Further Amendments to Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government, and Executive Order 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity); and
(iv) The Presidential Memorandum of October 5, 2016 (Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in the National Security Workforce).
(b) The Federal contracting process shall be streamlined to enhance speed and efficiency, reduce costs, and require Federal contractors and subcontractors to comply with our civil-rights laws. Accordingly:
(i) Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal Employment Opportunity), is hereby revoked. For 90 days from the date of this order, Federal contractors may continue to comply with the regulatory scheme in effect on January 20, 2025.
(ii) The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs within the Department of Labor shall immediately cease:
(A) Promoting “diversity”;
(B) Holding Federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for taking “affirmative action”; and
(C) Allowing or encouraging Federal contractors and subcontractors to engage in workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.
(iii) In accordance with Executive Order 13279 of December 12, 2002 (Equal Protection of the Laws for Faith-Based and Community Organizations), the employment, procurement, and contracting practices of Federal contractors and subcontractors shall not consider race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin in ways that violate the Nation’s civil rights laws.
(iv) The head of each agency shall include in every contract or grant award:
(A) A term requiring the contractual counterparty or grant recipient to agree that its compliance in all respects with all applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws is material to the government’s payment decisions for purposes of section 3729(b)(4) of title 31, United States Code; and
(B) A term requiring such counterparty or recipient to certify that it does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.
(c) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), with the assistance of the Attorney General as requested, shall:
(i) Review and revise, as appropriate, all Government-wide processes, directives, and guidance;
(ii) Excise references to DEI and DEIA principles, under whatever name they may appear, from Federal acquisition, contracting, grants, and financial assistance procedures to streamline those procedures, improve speed and efficiency, lower costs, and comply with civil-rights laws; and
(iii) Terminate all “diversity,” “equity,” “equitable decision-making,” “equitable deployment of financial and technical assistance,” “advancing equity,” and like mandates, requirements, programs, or activities, as appropriate.
Sec. 4. Encouraging the Private Sector to End Illegal DEI Discrimination and Preferences. (a) The heads of all agencies, with the assistance of the Attorney General, shall take all appropriate action with respect to the operations of their agencies to advance in the private sector the policy of individual initiative, excellence, and hard work identified in section 2 of this order.
(b) To further inform and advise me so that my Administration may formulate appropriate and effective civil-rights policy, the Attorney General, within 120 days of this order, in consultation with the heads of relevant agencies and in coordination with the Director of OMB, shall submit a report to the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy containing recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI. The report shall contain a proposed strategic enforcement plan identifying:
(i) Key sectors of concern within each agency’s jurisdiction;
(ii) The most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners in each sector of concern;
(iii) A plan of specific steps or measures to deter DEI programs or principles (whether specifically denominated “DEI” or otherwise) that constitute illegal discrimination or preferences. As a part of this plan, each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars;
(iv) Other strategies to encourage the private sector to end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences and comply with all Federal civil-rights laws;
(v) Litigation that would be potentially appropriate for Federal lawsuits, intervention, or statements of interest; and
(vi) Potential regulatory action and sub-regulatory guidance.
Sec. 5. Other Actions. Within 120 days of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education shall jointly issue guidance to all State and local educational agencies that receive Federal funds, as well as all institutions of higher education that receive Federal grants or participate in the Federal student loan assistance program under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq., regarding the measures and practices required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023).
Sec. 6. Severability. If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of its provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
Sec. 7. Scope. (a) This order does not apply to lawful Federal or private-sector employment and contracting preferences for veterans of the U.S. armed forces or persons protected by the Randolph-Sheppard Act, 20 U.S.C. 107 et seq.
(b) This order does not prevent State or local governments, Federal contractors, or Federally-funded State and local educational agencies or institutions of higher education from engaging in First Amendment-protected speech.
(c) This order does not prohibit persons teaching at a Federally funded institution of higher education as part of a larger course of academic instruction from advocating for, endorsing, or promoting the unlawful employment or contracting practices prohibited by this order.
Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to and does not create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 21, 2025.
