What Does Underrepresentation Really Mean?

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Chart from page 12 of the FY 2003 OPM report. The red notations were added by our editors.

In this chart from the 2004 OPM report, OPM estimates that only 7.0% of the Federal Workforce (FW) is comprised of Hispanics, while 13.1% of the Relevant Civilian Labor Force (RCLF) is comprised of Hispanics.           OPM wants us to believe that this proves that Hispanics are "underrepresented" and therefore should be given preference in hiring and promotion.

          But the Civilian data used by OPM includes non-citizens and unemployed individuals, whereas the Federal data, by definition, includes only employed individuals who are predominantly U.S. citizens.  This chart illustrates the non-comparability of the two sets of data used by OPM:

          OPM's data definitions state:  "The Federal workforce (FW) ... covers permanent employees.  ... The Civilian Labor Force  ... cover every non-institutionalized individual 16 years of age and older, employed and unemployed ... [and] U.S. citizens and noncitizens."   [FEORP at page 50, paragraph 3.]

          "Underrepresentation, as defined in 5 CFR, Section 720.202, means a situation in which the number of women or members of a minority group within a category of civil service employment constitutes a lower percentage of the total number of employees within the employment category than the percentage that women or the minority group constitutes within the civilian labor force of the United States."  [FEORP at page 50, paragraph 5.]

Commentary

          The doctrine of underrepresentation, as defined, says that Federal employers must strive to achieve equal results in hiring and promotion of certain races as opposed to offering equal opportunity based on skill and ability regardless of race or ethnicity.

          Second, by their own definition, OPM's data is biased toward overcounting minorities in the civilian labor force by including unemployed and non-citizens in this count.  The result is that the Federal underrepresentation numbers for specific races are higher than they would otherwise be.

          Third, there is no cap on Federal recruitment of selected minorities even when a race or group achieves proportional representation in the Federal workforce.  Witness the overhiring of blacks at EEOC by 622.6% beyond their proportion in the civilian labor pool.  The same is true at dozens of Federal agencies.

          Taken together, these facts portray a Federal government which is hell-bent on hiring and promoting based on skin color and ethnicity as long as that skin color is not white and as long as that ethnicity is not Northern European. 

          The OPM report does, indeed, paint a vivid picture of racial quotas run amok.  -- Tim Fay, Editor.

More 2004 Charts and Excerpts:

(0) OPM FY 2003 Minority Hiring
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