Three Ways Project 2025 Will Impact American Workplaces

A 922-page document, the Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise, also known as Project 2025, has been a big topic of conversation as the presidential election draws near. The document, which contains a detailed right-wing proposal of drastic changes for the next Republican president to implement, was drafted by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. The leader of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, stated in a podcast interview that Republicans are in the midst of “taking this country back” and that the U.S. is currently in a second American Revolution that will “remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Although several Trump administration officials contributed to the document, former president Trump has claimed to know nothing about it. Every American should understand Project 2025 and its potential long-term impacts. This article explores three major shifts that the authoritarian playbook will cause in the American workplace if implemented.

Widen systemic inequities in the workplace

The Project 2025 playbook calls for a complete gutting of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the workplace, stating the need for a reversal of the “DEI Revolution in Labor Policy,” and insisting that the next conservative Administration “eliminate every one of these wrongful and burdensome ideological projects.” Project 2025 also proposes an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the legislation that protects against discrimination based on a set of protected classes that includes race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, suggesting that the collecting of EEO-1 data like race, should be prohibited. Without collecting demographic data about employees, organizations will not be able to recognize disparities in representation (e.g., hiring and promotion rates). What gets measured gets improved and without adequate data collection, systemic inequities in the workplace will persist.

Eliminate worker protections

A labor union can be thought of as a group of individuals that come together to “guarantee the things you care about like decent wages, affordable health care, job security, safe and respectful workplaces, and fair scheduling.” Research from the Economic Policy Institute indicates that unions are associated with higher wages, less income inequality, smaller wage gaps, and improved health and safety among other benefits. Project 2025 wants to dismantle workers’ rights to organize via unions and proposes that employees instead be provided a less powerful alternative called “employee involvement organizations.” Unions play a vital role in empowering workers and ensuring that employees are treated and paid equitably— limiting their power or getting rid of unions altogether would ultimately harm workers.

Harm women and birthing people

In an attempt to center pro-family values, Project 2025 calls for an end to abortion and contraception access, stating that “the next conservative President should work with Congress to enact the most robust protections for the unborn that Congress will support while deploying existing federal powers to protect innocent life and vigorously complying with statutory bans on the federal funding of abortion.” Access to abortions can improve the quality of life for women and birthing people and in several cases, can be lifesaving. Forcing a person to have a child without developing the robust infrastructure needed to a) ensure a healthy pregnancy and b) provide ample support once the child arrives, is setting families up for failure. Instituting abortion bans may limit women’s workforce participation, increase time off from work, and reduce their earnings over time, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Abortion bans and limits to contraception access would have a detrimental effect not only on women and birthing people but on American families in general.