BIO
We have decades of experience in the private,
public, academic and nonprofit sectors.
Pamela Coukos
Co-Founder and CEO
Pamela Coukos, JD, PhD, is is the CEO and co-founder of Working IDEAL, and is a nationally recognized expert on pay equity and gender and racial equity, and the research on factors that drive successful and unsuccessful responses to workplace discrimination. She has assessed data and policies at large and small companies, local governments and education, labor and nonprofit organizations.
Pam is a former Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, where she provided strategic guidance on the agency’s enforcement and outreach programs, and led the development of new investigative guidelines to assess federal contractor pay systems and practices for potential sex and race discrimination. Her career spans civil rights litigation, research, policy analysis, teaching and training, and advocacy – and the government, private and nonprofit sectors. She holds a law degree from Harvard and a PhD in sociolegal studies from the University of California at Berkeley.
Pam is currently advising companies and organizations on gender equity, pay equity, diversity and inclusion, and affirmative action. Her services include high quality audits of data and workplace practices. She has extensive background as a teacher and trainer and can provide innovative diversity training for employees and managers based on research-driven best practices for building inclusive workplaces and addressing unconscious bias.
Experience
- Specializing in workplace discrimination, diversity programs and pay equity in private, public and non-profit sectors
- Formerly Senior Advisor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs at U.S. Department of Labor
- More than twenty years of experience in litigation, public policy, research, training, and public engagement
Highlights
- At the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Pam served as a technical subject matter expert for the agency’s recent proposed rule to collect contractor pay data and authored a report for the Department’s policy office on paid leave costs and benefits.
- Prior to joining DOL, Pam was Of Counsel to the law firm of Mehri & Skalet PLLC, where she represented plaintiffs in employment discrimination class actions. She served as a key member of the litigation and settlement team in Abdullah v. The Coca-Cola Company, a landmark case providing record financial and innovative programmatic relief to thousands of African-American class members for pay and promotion claims.
MORE INFO
At the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Pam provided strategic guidance on the agency’s enforcement and outreach programs, and led the development of new investigative guidelines to assess federal contractor pay systems and practices for potential sex and race discrimination. She also served as a technical subject matter expert for the agency’s recent proposed rule to collect contractor pay data and authored a report for the Department’s policy office on paid leave costs and benefits.
Pam began her legal career two decades ago working on federal legislation and impact litigation as a staff attorney for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (known today as Legal Momentum) and as the Public Policy Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In 2009-2010 she served as the California State Training Director for Organizing for America, training volunteer leaders working to support the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
In 2011 Pam completed her PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation applied quantitative and qualitative analysis to assess the effects of politics, law, and social movements on the development of sexual harassment law in the United States. Pam received her JD from Harvard Law School in 1994 and is a graduate of Brown University.