In a comprehensive overview of the diversity challenges faced by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), recent findings from the General Accounting Office (GAO) highlight the difficulties associated with instituting change within large federal organizations. Under President Joe Biden’s administration, a sweeping effort has been made to instill equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity across all government agencies. This initiative includes executive orders targeting underserved communities with the goal of encouraging more equitable representation and service delivery.
The GAO’s assessment of the IRS workforce underscores significant challenges. It reveals that the IRS has struggled with fundamental aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion studies, such as engaging stakeholders and utilizing diverse information sources. Despite having a workforce with a higher than expected representation of women and people from historically disadvantaged racial or ethnic groups, these individuals remain concentrated in the agency’s lower pay levels. Notably, the GAO found fewer veterans and people with disabilities in the IRS workforce than expected.
These anomalies raise questions about the agency’s ability to serve underserved communities effectively, as well as what motivates different demographics to join or avoid the agency. While the Biden administration has broadened the definition of “underserved communities” to include a wide variety of circumstances, defining the scope does not automatically translate to understanding root causes or devising solutions. Expanding the mission of equity might yield better results than a purely race-focused approach, but comprehensive data collection and analysis remain indispensable to achieving these goals.
The IRS and the wider federal government have been encouraged to adopt a data-driven approach, as outlined in various executive orders. One such order aims at advancing racial equity and enhancing service delivery to rebuild trust in the government’s interactions with its citizens.
Despite the issuance of equity action plans in 2021 and 2022 by the Department of the Treasury, the IRS continues to struggle with generating high-quality workforce data. This impediment suggests that the agency is not alone in its challenges; other federal entities might be facing similar obstacles.
Ultimately, the path toward achieving true equity involves not only data collection but also actionable policies aimed at eliminating workforce discrimination. The Office of Management and Budget’s whole-of-government equity agenda outlines this process as an ongoing effort requiring sustained commitment and innovation.