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ARLINGTON, Va. — President Donald Trump fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace, an unprecedented move aimed at implementing his crackdown on certain diversity and gender rights policies. The two commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, confirmed in statements Tuesday that they were fired late Monday.
Both said they were exploring options to challenge their dismissals, calling their removal before the expiration of their five-year terms an unprecedented decision that undermines the agency's independence. People are also reading..
. In a similar move, National Labor Relations Board member Gynne A. Wilcox and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo also were fired late Monday, the agency confirmed.
Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on that board since its inception in 1935, according to the NLRB website. The emblem of the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is seen Feb. 16, 2016, on a podium in Vail, Colo. David Zalubowski, Associated Press Agency investigates workplace discrimination cases The EEOC was created by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a bipartisan five-member panel to protect workers from discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability and other protected characteristics.
The U.S. president appoints the commissioners and the Senate confirms them, but their terms are staggered and are meant to overlap presidential terms to help ensure the agency's independence.
The two firings leave the agency with one Republican commissioner, Andrea Lucas, who Trump appointed acting EEOC chair last week, one Democratic commissioner, Kalpana Kotagal, and three vacancies that Trump can fill. Another Republican commissioner, Keith Sonderling, resigned after Trump appointed him deputy secretary of labor. Trump offering federal workers buyouts with about 8 months' pay in effort to shrink government The EEOC panel investigates and imposes penalties on employers found to have violated laws that protect workers from racial, gender, disability and other forms of discrimination.
The agency also writes influential rules and guidelines for how anti-discrimination laws should be implemented, and conducts workplace outreach and training. In recent years, the agency's Democratic and Republican commissioners were sharply divided on many issues. Both Republican commissioners voted against new guidelines last year stating that misgendering transgender employees, or denying access to a bathroom consistent with their gender identity, would violate anti-discrimination laws.
The Republican commissioners also voted against regulations stating that employers must give workers time off and other accommodations for abortions under the new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act . President Donald Trump speaks to reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami. Mark Schiefelbein, Associated Press Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts Firings follow moves to target DEI policies The firing of Burrows and Samuels appears aimed at positioning the EEOC to aggressively crack down on employers with diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — policies that the Trump administration believes veer into discrimination in their attempts to support racial minorities, women and other groups.
Lucas, the new acting EEOC chair, issued a statement last week saying that she would prioritize “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination; protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination; defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single‐sex spaces at work.” The three Democratic commissioners in contrast all issued statements last week condemning executive orders aimed at ending DEI practices in the federal workforce and private companies, along with protections for transgender workers. Their statements also emphasized that U.
S. anti-discrimination laws remained intact despite Trump's orders and that the EEOC must continue enforcing them. Burrows, who was an EEOC commissioner since 2015, said in her statement Tuesday that the dismissal of two Democratic commissioners before their terms ended “undermine the efforts of this independent agency to do the important work of protecting employees from discrimination, supporting employers’ compliance efforts, and expanding public awareness and understanding of federal employment laws.
” Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration freeze on federal grants and loans Samuels, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, said her removal “violates the law, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency — one that is not controlled by a single Cabinet secretary but operates as a multi-member body whose varying views are baked into the Commission’s design.” The firings drew swift condemnation from civil rights groups and organizations that promote the advancement of women in the workforce. “Today’s outrageous firings send a cruel message that not all workers can count on the EEOC.
Under the EEOC envisioned by Trump, the government will no longer have your back if you are a transgender or gay worker seeking fair treatment. And if you are a person of color or a woman, your success at work is evidence of ‘illegal DEI,’” said Gaylynn Burroughs, vice president for education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center. Sen.
Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, condemned the firing of the EEOC commissioners and NLRB members. “These are yet more lawless actions by a president who thinks he is above the law and clearly could not care less about the rights of workers,” she said in a statement. Read more: Trump order aims to end federal support for gender transitions for those under 19 Trump-endorsed candidates win primary races to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz Cities With the Most Women in Construction Cities With the Most Women in Construction Photo Credit: Yuri A / Shutterstock Construction has long been a male-dominated field.
According to recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau, only 11.
5% of payroll employees in the construction industry are women. However, a promising shift is underway. In recent years, the Department of Labor’s Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations ( WANTO ) grant program has allocated millions of dollars to bolster women’s participation in industries like construction.
And with the construction industry facing a massive worker shortage —estimated to exceed half a million workers—recruiting women into construction roles has become not just a priority, but a necessity for sustaining growth and meeting demand. PeopleImages.com - Yuri A Female Construction Employment Over Time The share of women in construction has increased steadily over the past several years Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.
S. Census Bureau data | Image Credit: Construction Coverage The share of women in construction has steadily increased over the past several years, marking progress in diversifying the industry. While women remain underrepresented in the workforce, the data reveals a gradual yet consistent upward trend in female employment within the construction sector.
Prior to 2016, women comprised approximately 9% of the construction workforce. This figure held relatively steady for over a decade, fluctuating slightly between 8.9% and 9.
5% from 2003 to 2015. However, since 2016, the share of female employees in construction has climbed nearly every year, reaching 11.1% in 2022 and continuing to rise to 11.
5% by 2023. This growth reflects both industry efforts to address workforce shortages and initiatives aimed at increasing diversity, such as targeted training programs and grants. Female Construction Employment by Occupation Type Women in the construction industry are most likely to work in office positions Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.
S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data | Image Credit: Construction Coverage Nationwide, over 1.3 million women are employed in the construction sector, compared to more than 10 million men.
This gender disparity is evident not only in overall employment numbers but also in the types of roles occupied by men and women. Women are far more likely to work in office and administrative positions, while men dominate field-based roles. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up nearly 80% of the construction industry’s office and administrative roles.
They also are more highly concentrated in professional, sales, and management roles compared to other occupations in the sector. However, female representation is significantly lower in roles traditionally associated with fieldwork. Only 4.
5% of transportation positions and 4.1% of construction and extraction roles are filled by women. Representation is even lower in maintenance and repair jobs, as well as production roles, where women account for just 2.
0% and 3.5% of workers, respectively. Construction Industry Wages by Sex Full-time female workers earn more in construction than in other industries; face smaller wage gaps Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.
S. Census Bureau data | Image Credit: Construction Coverage A major benefit for women in the construction industry is that they tend to command higher wages than female workers in other fields. The median annual wage for full-time female construction industry workers is $54,044, exceeding the median of $52,458 for women across all industries.
This wage advantage highlights the potential of construction as a lucrative career path for women. Interestingly, the opposite is true for men in construction, who typically earn less than their counterparts in other sectors. Male workers in the construction industry have a median annual wage of $56,805, compared to $64,705 for male workers across all industries.
Another noteworthy aspect of wages in construction is the narrower gender pay gap. While the national gender pay gap across all industries sits at approximately 18.9%, the gap in construction is significantly smaller at just 4.
9%. Geographic Differences in Female Employment in the Construction Industry Alaska has the highest share of women working in the construction sector Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.S.
Census Bureau data | Image Credit: Construction Coverage While the construction industry remains male-dominated nationally, the underrepresentation of women in construction is less pronounced in certain parts of the country. This variation highlights regional differences in workforce dynamics, compensation levels, and diversity efforts within the industry. Alaska and Hawaii lead the nation in female construction employment, with women making up 13.
8% and 13.4% of the industry’s workforce, respectively. These states likely benefit from the relatively high wages offered in the construction sector, which can be an attractive factor for women entering the field.
States in the Pacific Northwest, such as Washington (12.7%) and Oregon (12.5%), and parts of the South Atlantic, including Florida (13.
3%) and Maryland (12.4%), also report female representation above the national average of 11.5%.
Similar trends can be observed at the metropolitan level. Metros like Jacksonville, FL (17.4%), Orlando, FL (16.
1%), and New Orleans, LA (14.4%) rank among the top metros for female construction employment. At the opposite end of the spectrum, several locations in Texas, California, and the Northeast report concentrations of women in construction below 9.
5%. In McAllen, TX, just 6.7% of construction industry workers are female—the lowest of any major U.
S. metropolitan area. Below is breakdown of female construction employment across the top and bottom states and metropolitan areas.
The analysis was conducted by Construction Coverage , a website that provides construction insurance guides, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
For complete results, refer to the original post: Cities With the Most Women in Construction . States With the Most Women in Construction Cities With the Most Women in Construction Methodology Photo Credit: Yuri A / Shutterstock The data used in this analysis is from the U.S.
Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey . One-year estimates were used for national statistics, while five-year estimates were used for state and MSA statistics. To determine the locations with the most women in construction, researchers at Construction Coverage ranked locations by the percentage of employees in the construction industry that are female.
In the event of a tie, locations with the higher total female employment in the construction industry were ranked higher. Additionally, due to statistical significance limitations of the dataset, only the top 100 metropolitan areas by population with complete data were included in the analysis. For complete results, see Cities With the Most Women in Construction on Construction Coverage.
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