CWC History

CWC was founded in 1976 in Washington, D.C. as the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC). It was originally established to provide guidance to its member companies on understanding and complying with their equal employment and affirmative action obligations, as well as to explain the impact of government policies on employers and suggest solutions to both courts and administrative agencies through amicus curiae briefs and comments. 

For more than four decades, the association served as an effective advocate for its members’ interests in the areas of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, publishing more than 5,000 memos interpreting and explaining important compliance developments, authoring more than 400 comment letters to federal regulators, and filing more than 700 amicus curiae briefs in cases of national importance to the development of workplace compliance policy. 

Over time, the work of the association expanded to meet the evolving needs of its member employers, and additional subject matter experts were added to the association’s staff in the areas of wage and hour, state standards, workplace immigration, and labor relations compliance. 

In 2016, after an extensive market research study and to better reflect its broader mission, the association’s board of directors unanimously approved a resolution recommending that the association be renamed the Center for Workplace Compliance. The resolution was approved by the association’s members in July 2017, and CWC was officially launched later that year. 

CWC is governed by a 21-member board of directors and staffed by the Washington, D.C. law firm NT Lakis, LLP, whose partners, associates, and non-attorney professionals have been serving the association and its members since its founding in 1976.