Discrimination Complaints in the U.S. Federal Government: Reviewing Progress Under the No FEAR Act

• Author: Ellen V. Rubin,Ashley M. Alteri
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Date: 01 December 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X17744864
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X17744864

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2019, Vol. 39(4) 511 –522

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X17744864

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Article

Discrimination Complaints in

the U.S. Federal Government:

Reviewing Progress Under the

No FEAR Act

Ellen V. Rubin1 and Ashley M. Alteri2

Abstract

The foundational goal of civil rights legislation is to reduce discrimination, in both

the public and private sector. To understand the levels of perceived discrimination

in the federal government, this research note examines 9 years of data reported

under the requirements of the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination

and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). From 2006 to 2014, less than 1% of

federal employees filed discrimination complaints each year, and the discrimination

complaint rate did not significantly change over the time period. Race, color, and

national origin were the most frequently claimed discrimination bases. Approximately

half of all complaints alleged retaliation after filing an initial discrimination claim. In

addition, federal employees most frequently claimed that discrimination occurred in

the context of nonsexual harassment. This research note describes other trends in

discrimination claims and proposes directions for future research.

Keywords

discrimination, diversity management, retaliation, nonsexual harassment, affirmative

action and equal employment opportunity

Over the last 50 years, public administration scholars evaluated various aspects of diversity

in the public sector. Recent articles by Pitts and Wise (2010) and Bearfield (2014) observe

that public administration diversity research focuses on the presence of different groups in

the public sector workforce and their distribution within organizational hierarchies (e.g.,

1University at Albany, NY, USA

2Tennessee State University, Nashville, USA

Corresponding Author:

Ellen V. Rubin, Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Policy, University at

Albany, State University of New York, 135 Western Ave., Milne Hall 101, Albany, NY 12222, USA.

Email: erubin@albany.edu

744864ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X17744864Review of Public Personnel AdministrationRubin and Alteri

research-article2017