The VEVRAA Hiring Benchmark, Explained Properly
Every contractor required to maintain a written affirmative action program must set a protected-veteran hiring benchmark each year. Most adopt the national figure without realising there is a second method — or that the benchmark applies per establishment.
Current national benchmark
5.1%
effective 30 July 2025
Applies
Per establishment
not company-wide
Records
3 years
benchmark and supporting data
What it is — and what it is not
The benchmark is a yardstick for measuring whether your outreach is working. It is expressed as the percentage of your new hires who are protected veterans. It is not a quota, and coming in below it is not a violation. What it does is pose a question: are the recruitment efforts you are running actually producing veteran candidates?
Method one: adopt the national percentage
The simplest route. OFCCP publishes the national percentage of veterans in the civilian labour force and updates it on its own schedule. The current figure is 5.1%, effective 30 July 2025. Recent history:
| Effective | National percentage |
|---|---|
| 30 July 2025 – | 5.1% |
| 31 March 2024 – 29 July 2025 | 5.2% |
| 31 March 2023 – 30 March 2024 | 5.4% |
| 31 March 2022 – 30 March 2023 | 5.5% |
The update dates are irregular — this is not a fixed annual change. Check the current figure with OFCCP rather than assuming last year’s still stands.
Method two: the five-factor individualised benchmark
You may instead calculate your own, taking into account all five of these:
- the average percentage of veterans in the civilian labour force in the state(s) where you are located, over the preceding three years
- the number of veterans, over the previous four quarters, who participated in the employment service delivery system in your state
- your applicant and hiring ratios for the previous year
- your recent assessments of how effective your outreach and recruitment have been
- any other factors — the nature of the job, its location — affecting the availability of qualified protected veterans
The first two come from OFCCP’s Benchmark Database. The last three are yours, which is precisely why the five-factor route obliges you to have done the assessment work in the first place.
The detail almost everyone misses
The benchmark applies to hiring at each establishment separately — not to the company as a whole, and not to each job group. A company-wide average can sit comfortably above the benchmark while individual establishments sit well below it, and it is the establishments that get evaluated.
You may also mix methods: adopt the national percentage at one establishment and run a five-factor analysis at another. Each contractor is free to use either method.
This is worth restating, because it changes what “we are fine” means. If you have twelve sites and one of them hires almost no veterans, your consolidated number can hide it — and the consolidated number is not the one being measured.
Our own tool has this limitation too. The benchmark checker on this site aggregates a company’s VETS-4212 filings into a single figure, because that is what the public data supports. Treat it as an indicator of overall direction, not as an establishment-level compliance assessment. Your internal numbers, by location, are the ones that count.
This is not legal advice. LockLeed International is a veteran-owned staffing agency — not a law firm, not a compliance consultancy, and not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Labor or OFCCP. Everything here is summarised from public DOL and OFCCP guidance and was checked against those sources on 1 August 2026. Regulations change: the Department published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on 1 July 2025 proposing modifications to the VEVRAA regulations, so confirm anything that matters with your own counsel or with OFCCP before acting on it.
Common Questions
What is the current VEVRAA hiring benchmark?
5.1% of new hires, effective 30 July 2025. OFCCP publishes and updates the national percentage of veterans in the civilian labour force on its website; the previous figures were 5.2%, 5.4% and 5.5%.
Does the VEVRAA benchmark apply company-wide?
No. OFCCP states that the hiring benchmark — whether the national percentage or a five-factor benchmark — should be applied to hiring for each establishment separately.
Can a contractor set different benchmarks at different establishments?
Yes. A contractor may adopt the national percentage at one establishment and use the five-factor analysis at another; each contractor is free to use either method.
What are the five factors in an individualised benchmark?
The average percentage of veterans in the civilian labour force in the contractor's state(s) over the preceding three years; the number of veterans who participated in the state employment service delivery system over the previous four quarters; the contractor's applicant and hiring ratios for the previous year; the contractor's recent assessments of outreach effectiveness; and any other factors affecting availability.
The Rest of the Picture
VEVRAA Compliance
What VEVRAA requires of federal contractors: the $150,000 threshold, mandatory job listing, self-identification, the hiring benchmark, and annual documentation.
VETS-4212 Filing Guide
Who must file VETS-4212, the 1 August to 30 September window, the $150,000 threshold, batch filing, and where filings go wrong.
Below the Benchmark
Coming in under the 5.1% VEVRAA benchmark is not a violation — but it does trigger a documented obligation. What OFCCP expects, and how to close the gap.
We Don't Do Paperwork. We Do Candidates.
Filing the form is your job, and it is not the hard part. Hiring enough qualified veterans to move the number is what most contractors struggle with — and that is the only part we do. Veteran-owned, nationwide, fee only on a hire.