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WASHINGTON, DC — Over the last decade, VA has increased the percentage of employees who are non-white, but those employees are more likely to be paid less, be fired more and receive fewer raises and awards, as well as, less vacation time, according to a new report.
And while the department has several avenues through which employees can file discrimination complaints, they rarely result in findings for the employee and are, agency watchdogs pointed out, in urgent need of reform.
A report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last month looked at VA staffing numbers through 2021 and found that VA has a higher percentage of Black, Asian and Native American employees than the civilian sector and that the percentage of nonwhite employees has grown a total of 6.4% since 2000. Some groups were less well represented, however, with Hispanics, for example, representing 6% of VA staff vs. about 13% nationally.
Despite greater representation in VA’s workforce, nonwhite employees could expect to receive fewer opportunities during their employment than their white counterparts, the recent report advised. Percentagewise, there are fewer nonwhite employees in senior executive positions and fewer among the department’s top earners.
About 7% of the top earners in VA were Black, while Black employees made up about 25% of the department’s total workforce in 2021, the report noted. About 4% of the top earners were Hispanic, with Hispanics making up about 6% of the total workforce.
VA employed relatively more Asian employees in the top 10%—23% among the top earners, while making up only 9% of the overall workforce.
“The difference in representation of racial and ethnic groups among top earners at VA compared to their representation in VA overall may be explained, in part, by occupational differences for these groups,” the report noted. “Specifically, racial and ethnic groups more represented in VA’s top earners were also more likely to hold a higher paying occupation. For example, Asian VA employees are more represented in occupations with higher average pay, such as physician or pharmacist. Meanwhile, Black VA employees are more represented in occupations with lower average pay, such as nursing and medical support assistants and custodial work.”
The report found that white men generally have better outcomes during their time working at VA than other racial and ethnic groups hired into similar occupations. Black men and women saw lower starting pay, less pay growth and promotions after 10 years, fewer cash awards and less time off. Black men had a 50% higher chance of being removed after 10 years, and Black women a 25% higher chance.
Lower Earnings
“We estimated that VA employees from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups hired into similar occupations generally earned less than white men, on average,” the GAO investigators stated. “Starting pay differences ranged from about 2.4% to about 7.3% less than white men. For example, if a white man employed at VA had a starting pay of $75,000, a Black woman in a similar occupation that started at the same time would be expected to earn approximately $70,500. We also found that 10 years after starting at VA in similar occupations, White men had statistically higher annual pay than all racial, ethnic, and gender categories, except Native American men.”
The annual number of discrimination complaints filed at VA ranged from a low of 4,800 in 2017 to a high of 5,600 in 2018. The majority of these complaints were for discrimination based on race. However, only a small portion of those resulted in a finding of discrimination, ranging from a high of 1.2% in 2018 to .45% in 2020.
When VA sees a high number of complaints coming from a single facility, it will “conduct training and other efforts to help prevent behavior that may lead to complaints,” according to the OIG investigators, who added, “VA also makes periodic efforts to use the complaint data to identify themes or trends across the department.”
They noted, however, that this complaint data provided an incomplete picture.
“Although complaint data is helpful in understanding trends related to employee perceived experiences of discrimination, we found that these data may not provide a full sense of the potential magnitude of these experiences at VA,” the report stated. “For example, complaints may not be a good estimate of perceived experiences of discrimination. Representatives from three of VA’s five national unions said that due to concerns about retaliation, VA employees often do not feel comfortable coming forward with a complaint of discrimination.”
Perceived, or real, conflicts of interest may also keep employees from coming forward, GAO investigators explained. The role of VA’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Director falls under the portfolio of the Assistant Secretary of Human Resources and Administration, currently Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Gina Grosso. Tasking the same person with both EEO and personnel responsibilities goes against Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recommendations.
“Because the EEO processes often scrutinize and challenge the motivations and impacts of personnel actions and decisions, they must be kept separate from personnel functions to maintain their integrity and ensure they are carried out in an impartial manner,” the GAO investigators explained. “Having an agency’s EEO Director be in charge of both general oversight of EEO complaint processes and personnel actions can create, at a minimum, the appearance of a conflict of interest and erode employees’ trust that EEO complaints will be handled appropriately.”
In 2020, GAO recommended that VA realign its EEO director position, separating it from human resources. VA did not follow that recommendation at the time. In December 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 included a provision requiring VA to ensure the EEO director does not also serve in a role that oversees personnel.
According to EEOC officials, VA’s EEO structure is so embedded within its personnel functions, that it will need to disentangle them and create a separate EEO office entirely. As of July 2023, VA was still in the process of assessing just what that effort would entail.
