Biden Racial Equity Policies Working: Minority Groups Growing in Federal Workforce

Biden Policies Achieving Goal of Racial Equity by Hiring More Minorities

The Biden administration has put racial equity in the forefront of government policy on various topics, including hiring and promoting federal employees.

Federal agencies and companies used to have EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) offices. The concept was to treat all employees equally and to ensure all employees were given the same opportunity without regard to race, etc.

More recently, EEO has morphed into ensuring “equity”—sometimes considered ensuring an equal outcome among various groups of people including “underserved” groups. Here are the protected groups listed in the executive order:

“[E]quity” means the consistent and systematic treatment of all individuals in a fair, just, and impartial manner, including individuals who belong to communities that often have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander persons and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; women and girls; LGBTQI+ persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; persons who live in United States Territories; persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality; and individuals who belong to multiple such communities.  

Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government

White Feds Decreasing; Minorities Increasing

Using this concept as a gauge, the Biden policies are working well as the percentage of minorities in government is increasing significantly while the percentage of whites is decreasing.

For example, the number of Hispanic federal employees has increased by 11.48% in the last four years, and the number of Asians has increased by 11.32%. The percentage of Caucasians has decreased slightly while the number of federal employees is growing and every other category of employees increased.

Overall, federal employment has increased by 7.52% since September 2020.

Here are the numbers for the largest racial categories and genders:

Average Salaries by Racial Group and Gender: 2020-2023

Here is a list of average federal salaries for these racial groups. Washington, DC is the largest and often among the highest salary groups, and it is included in the list.

While there was an average pay increase of 5.2% starting in 2024 for federal employees, those data have not been included. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will post this information in the next few months.

The average federal employee salary for 2023 was $100,667. An approximate average of the 2024 federal salary is about $106,800 including the 2024 increase but the final figure will not be available until provided by OPM.

The highest salary listed is for employees in Washington, DC with an average of $137,385. Among the racial groups, the highest is for Asian employees with an average in 2023 of $120,313. The lowest salaries are for Black federal employees ($90,307) and Hispanics ($90,529)

The largest salary increases have been for Black employees (12.4%) and Asians (12.2%). Women have received slightly higher increases than men. The average white salary increased by 11.77%.