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Analysis of Reduction in Force (RIF)
Compensation and Pay Equity Studies
Data Preparation for Affirmative Action and EEO Reporting
Promotions and Terminations Analyses
Statistical Analysis in Employment Class Action Lawsuits, OFCCP and EEOC cases

A compensation study can be a valuable tool for an organization to gain a better understanding of factors affecting compensation in the organization's workforce and to respond to audits or inquiries by The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). These agencies are paying increasing attention to gender- race- or ethnicity-based pay disparities. In addition, class action and individual lawsuits on pay issues can pose a risk to the organization.

In a pay equity analysis, employee compensation is first evaluated by similarly situated groups. Within these groups, determinations are made as to whether or not there are statistically significant differences within the groups by race, gender or ethnicity. If statistically significant differences are found, further analysis is done to evaluate whether or not non-discriminatory factors, such as variations in experience, seniority or education, explain the differences. Analyses may also be carried out evaluating smaller groups on a qualitative basis.

Differences are not limited to base compensation but can require evaluation of more complex factors, including but not limited to bonuses, commissions, overtime, and route assignments.
Many additional factors contribute to pay complexity. New employees in the same job may start at different rates based on factors such as length of experience, salary at a previous employer, education and other qualifications, competitiveness of the local job market at the time of hire, or regional differences. Some employees may be covered by a union contract. Others, such as salespeople, may be paid subject to a complex compensation plan including commission and other factors.
A comprehensive report will be prepared explaining the results of the pay equity study, and may be presented to the organization in a work session. Recommendations for changes will be discussed, and implications of various scenarios may be explored.

The revised Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations require overtime payment to non-exempt employees. Expert can review the job descriptions and job functions of your current workforce and help your legal counsel make determinations about whether the positions are most appropriately classified as exempt or non-exempt.
This analysis may involve:
Reviewing documents, such as job postings, job descriptions, and personnel files, including employee compensation
Interviewing key personnel, including executives, supervisors and other employees, in-person, by phone, and in writing
Evaluation of occupational qualifications, job duties and other factors
Examples of other FLSA consulting projects conducted include:
Consulting to a public sector employer to review job duties of an employee who claimed to be non-exempt
Calculating damages under FLSA and state laws for a group of non-exempt employees who had been classified as exempt over a several year period. This involved surveying the employees to estimate actual hours worked and developing a model to estimate compensation due
Estimates of the number of persons exempt and not exempt made for the U.S. Department of Labor in their official reports to Congress
He has been a consultant to government agencies including the Wage and Hour Division, EEOC, OFCCP and the of the U.S. Department of Labor and has been a consultant to lawyers representing plaintiffs and defendants in public and private sector organizations including state agencies, school districts, and Global 500 Corporations.

Calculations of the economic loss of an individual are often required in a variety of cases including personal injury, wrongful death, wrongful termination, and failure to promote.
Expert will prepare a loss evaluation based on the specific circumstances of the employee. The personal information we typically use in order to provide an estimate of economic loss include:
Earnings history or the earnings of comparable workers
Education/training
Age
Seniority
Fringe benefits
Pension plan
Profit sharing
Employee stock option plan
Household services provided
Assessment by a vocational rehabilitation expert

To estimate economic loss, personal data will be combined with data from government and other sources on topics such as life expectancy, fringe benefit rates, earnings by occupation, and life cycle earnings patterns.
Using the relevant information, he will prepare a report detailing the worker’s estimated loss of compensation, including lost pension and medical benefits, if necessary. Separate calculations can also be prepared for loss of household services or economic valuation of a life care plan.

In wrongful discharge cases, a plaintiff is often required to mitigate the damages suffered as a result of the lost employment. The calculation of economic damages may take into account what the employee might have earned had he or she properly mitigated his or her losses. Thus the calculation of lost compensation can be more complicated than the projection of what the employee would have earned had they not been wrongfully terminated.
Key questions addressed may include:
If an employee did not find employment prior to the trial, did the employee do a "reasonable" job of looking for work?
How much would a wrongfully terminated employee have earned if not terminated?
If an employee did a "reasonable" job of looking for work and still did not find comparable work, what is likely to be:
The length of time before finding work
The progression of future wages

In evaluating an employee's job search, Expert's company uses a unique analysis based on economic indicators to place the employee's job opportunities in a relevant context. The labor market situation may vary based on several factors, such as the appropriate definition of the geographic area in which the employee was looking for work, the relevant time period, and the employee's profession, industry, and qualifications.
Expert's company has access to a unique and comprehensive on-line database of electronic help wanted ads. This database can be accessed to retrieve historical information about employment opportunities advertised on the Internet for the employee’s occupation during the entire time period of the loss. The available data includes postings from leading sites such as Monster.com and Career Builder as well listings for state employment agencies and on-line editions of local, regional, and national newspapers for five years from 1,500 sources.
Expert has prepared mitigation reports and calculations of economic loss for plaintiffs and defendants, involving large and small organizations in the public and private sectors in matters involving many different industries and occupations.

Class action lawsuits can involve hundreds or even thousands of people which translates into extensive document management and large database analysis.
Expert is able to:
Construct, maintain and analyze large databases
Maintain and organize vast quantities of data, both hard copy and electronic
Develop survey questions in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Reference Guide on Survey Research
Analyze and evaluate survey responses
Run statistical tests on survey data
Expert's company has developed and analyzed extensive databases and produced reports relating to various types of class actions, including employment discrimination and wage and hour matters, among others.

Railroad workers are not covered under worker’s compensation statutes; rather, the injured railroad worker has the right to recover damages incurred due to a work-related injury under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). Claims brought under FELA require specific analysis outside the typical personal injury or wrongful death action.
The personal information we typically use in order to provide an estimate of economic loss may include:
Earnings history or the earnings of comparable workers
Education
Age
Union affiliation
Seniority
Assessment by a vocational expert
Using the information listed above, as well as data on life expectancy, work life expectancy, interest rates, and information from the Railroad Retirement Board’s method for calculating pensions, he will prepare a report detailing the worker’s estimated loss of compensation, including lost pension and medical benefits.

Many organizations are required to prepare Affirmative Action Plans for federal compliance purposes. A variety of software programs are available to assist the Human Resource professional in preparing these plans simply and efficiently. One of the most important components of the plan, however, is the quality and accuracy of the underlying data.
Some of the challenging issues involved in preparing the Affirmative Action Plan include:
Careful data verification in establishing workforce counts
Meaningful construction of benchmarks, taking into account occupation, recruiting areas, and other relevant factors
Correctly interpreting census definitions, and incorporating other public and private data sources if appropriate
Hiring and applicant analyses that appropriately considers "who is an applicant"
Preparing an accurate plan is important. In addition to its use in federal compliance, some organizations have found that their Affirmative Action Plans have been used by plaintiffs filing lawsuits against the organization. Inaccuracies or incorrect interpretations, such as not carefully defining benchmarks, or reporting incorrect workforce counts, can cause future problems.
Expert’s company has evaluated human resources data for organizations in many different industries, has been a consultant to government agencies including the EEOC, OFCCP and the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor and has been a consultant to lawyers representing plaintiffs and defendants.

Expert has either testified or been a consultant in over 1,000 audits or cases and has testified over 150 times. Expert has also served as an expert to the EEOC and U.S. Department of Labor in discrimination cases, and has directed many research projects sponsored by government agencies. Other staff members are also available to testify.
Expert’s company’s staff has wide-ranging experience in litigation support including handling projects involving extensive document management and large database analysis. Expert’s company’s in-house capabilities include data coding, data entry, economic research, statistical analysis and report preparation.

A case involving an injured worker or other injured individual may include a Life Care Plan. This may be in a FELA case involving an injured railroad worker, a medical malpractice case, or some other type of injury case. A Life Care Plan is a document that estimates all the procedures, medications, therapies equipment, and other considerations the injured individual will need throughout the remainder of his or her lifetime, or recovery period.
Expert’s company will compile the estimates of all the Life Care Plan components and apply the appropriate inflation and discount values to calculate the total estimated present value cost of the Life Care Plan.

The primary purpose of an Expert’s company employment audit is to determine if disparities exist in the treatment of employees by race, age, gender, national origin, or other group. Examination of statistical disparities can provide a useful starting point in the analysis of an organization's employment practices. Employment audits are typically conducted in conjunction with an external legal review by the organization’s outside counsel.
Areas examined in an employment audit may include:
Workforce
Hiring
Promotions
Terminations
Compensation
Performance reviews
Discipline
Transfers
An Expert’s company employment audit may also include examinations of an organization's record keeping practices with respect to issues such as personnel information, application logs, job classification, and maintenance and reporting of the necessary data for the preparation of Affirmative Action Plans. In conjunction with an employment audit, Expert’s company can perform a variety of other analyses as needed.
Expert’s company uses multiple sources of data in measuring disparities. These may include various internal organization records, such as personnel transactions (promotions, terminations, etc.). In addition, other data sources, including government data, may be examined for purposes of external comparison. Expert’s company can assist an organization in recoding of occupation and geographic data to current Census data.

Expert’s company has extensive experience in providing statistical support and testimony in OFCCP audits, EEOC cases and employment class actions. Cases involving the OFCCP and EEOC often have specific guidelines that need to be followed relating to the data and analysis in order to be in compliance. Class action lawsuits can involve hundreds or even thousands of people which translates into extensive document management and large database analysis.
Some examples of cases in which Expert’s company has been involved include:
Statistical support for OFCCP audits including presentation of statistical results to the OFCCP, regarding hiring of protected groups in multiple locations for a Fortune 500 company
Statistical analysis in a case alleging disparate impact due to not hiring ex-offenders
Evaluating delivery route assignments by race of employee and geographic locations
Analysis of police officer assignments, discipline policies and promotions by gender for a Midwestern city
Hiring of service sector employees in an EEOC case over a multi-year period
Statistical analysis of police officer stops in a racial profiling matter
Expert’s company has audited and analyzed employment records for large and small organizations across the U.S. and in many different industries. Expert’s company has been a consultant to several government agencies including the EEOC, OFCCP and the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor, and has been a consultant to lawyers representing plaintiffs and defendants.