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Clauses · FAR · Small business, labor and socioeconomic

FAR 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

No

Primes still carry it in outdated templates

A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-09 · edition Sept 2016 — INOPERATIVE due to revocation of EO 11246 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

6 items for your checklist, slowest first.

  1. Something you write5

    Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.

    • The notices provided by the contracting officer, posted in conspicuous places available to employees and applicants for employment

      Owed when the contracting officer provides them — this posts notices you do not write, and whether they are issued is not in your hands

      FAR 52.222-26(c)(3)

    • The line in all solicitations or advertisements for employees stating that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin

      FAR 52.222-26(c)(4)

    • The pay transparency policy statement, put into your employee manual or handbook and disseminated by electronic posting or by a copy posted in conspicuous places available to employees and applicants — a second posting, separate from the notices at (c)(3)

      FAR 52.222-26(c)(5)(ii)
    • The notice provided by the contracting officer, sent to each labor union or representative of workers you hold a collective bargaining agreement or other understanding with

      Owed when you have such an agreement or understanding AND the contracting officer provides the notice — both, and the second is not in your hands

      FAR 52.222-26(c)(6)
    • Your books, accounts and records, and access to your premises during normal business hours, for an on-site compliance evaluation

      Owed when the contracting agency or the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs conducts an on-site compliance evaluation

      FAR 52.222-26(c)(9)

  2. Something you fill in and send back

    Hours, once you know which one is missing.

    • Standard Form 100 (EEO-1), or any successor form, filed as 41 CFR part 60-1 prescribes, together with the information and reports the clause requires

      FAR 52.222-26(c)(8)

When it is used

Paragraph (b)(1) sets the reach: nonexempt federal contracts and subcontracts awarded in any 12-month period with an aggregate value in excess of $10,000, read against the clause text on 2026-08-09. Executive Order 11246 was revoked on 2025-01-21, class deviations direct contracting officers not to include the clause, and OFCCP stopped its enforcement (unconfirmed — DOL Order 03-2025 was not read: dol.gov returns 403 and the Federal Register carries no matching document). Each of those three facts directs a contracting officer or an enforcement agency. None of them reaches an order that already carries the clause, so none of them is a condition on this trigger.

Read closely

Paragraph (c)(8) is a filing rather than a principle, which is what a reader who skims this clause misses. Executive Order 11246, the order behind it, was revoked on 2025-01-21 by Executive Order 14173; class deviations have directed contracting officers since 2025-02-15 not to include or enforce the clause, OFCCP enforcement stopped under DOL Order 03-2025 on 2025-01-24 (unconfirmed — DOL Order 03-2025 was not read: dol.gov returns 403 and the Federal Register carries no matching document), and the model text for the FAR overhaul prints the clause as reserved while the codified FAR still carries the September 2016 text. None of that reaches a purchase order that already contains the clause: a revocation binds the contracting officer and the enforcement agency, and the clause in your document is a term of your contract, so a buyer holding it can still ask for what (c)(8) names. Two of the six depend on notices the contracting officer supplies, which is why they carry the condition rather than a date. Paragraph (c)(9) sits under a heading that does not fit it: access on demand is not something you author, and there is no heading here for what you open up when an evaluator arrives, so it is grouped with the things you write. Paragraph (b)(1) sets the clause's own reach — federal contracts and subcontracts exceeding $10,000 in aggregate in any 12-month period — and (c)(11) requires the clause in all subcontracts and purchase orders. Title VII, the veterans clause at FAR 52.222-35 and the disability clause at FAR 52.222-36 are separate and remain in force.

The 7 templates that name it, with the line
233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 56751Raytheon TC-001 — General Terms and Conditions of PurchaseRTXline 456105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 151273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 314107Honeywell — Supplemental Provisions Under Fixed Price U.S. Government Contracts for Commercial ItemsHoneywellline 14189AAR Government Services — C40 Purchase Order General Provisions, Non-Commercial Firm Fixed Price Items or ServicesAAR Corpline 3024178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 648

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.222-26; EO 14173. Codified text read at FAC 2026-01 (effective 2026-03-13), prescribed at 22.810(e) with designation (Sept 2016), and printed [Reserved] in the RFO Part 52 disposition table (verified 2026-08-09)

This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.