VEVRAA and Section 503 Affirmative Action Plan Template (2026)

VEVRAA, the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, requires federal contractors to not discriminate against protected veterans and to take affirmative action to hire and advance them. Contractors with 50 or more employees and a contract of $200,000 or more must keep a written VEVRAA affirmative action plan.

VEVRAA is enforced by the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), and its rules are in 41 CFR part 60-300. It protects four groups of veterans (60-300.2): disabled veterans; recently separated veterans, within three years of discharge or release from active duty; active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans; and Armed Forces service medal veterans.

Its sister law, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, requires affirmative action for individuals with disabilities (41 CFR part 60-741). Most contractors keep the two plans side by side, which is why this kit covers both. In 2026 the Department of Labor rewrote the Section 503 rules and rescinded the Executive Order 11246 regulations, so many contractors are checking what is left. The short answer: VEVRAA's requirements stay in force, with a higher dollar threshold.

Last reviewed: 25 October 2026. Every rule below links to the current eCFR text or the Federal Register; check them again before you finalize a plan.

The VEVRAA threshold rose from $150,000 to $200,000, and the basic Section 503 threshold from $15,000 to $20,000, under the federal acquisition inflation adjustment effective October 1, 2025. The Department of Labor wrote the new amounts into its regulations effective September 21, 2026 (91 FR 54234; 91 FR 54482). Some older pages still show $150,000; the current eCFR text says $200,000.

Each year you adopt a hiring benchmark, a percentage of hires you aim for that are protected veterans (60-300.45). You can use the national benchmark OFCCP publishes, which is 5.1% effective July 30, 2025 according to the DOL VEVRAA Hiring Benchmark page (checked October 24, 2026; it was 5.2% from March 31, 2024 to July 29, 2025), or set your own from five factors: your state's average veteran share of the civilian labor force over 3 years, veterans in the state employment service system over the last 4 quarters, your prior-year applicant and hiring ratios, your recent outreach assessments, and any other relevant factors. Document the benchmark, and the factors and weights if you use them, and keep it for 3 years. The benchmark is not a quota, ceiling or floor.

Worked example (sample company, labelled as a sample). In its last plan year a 300-employee contractor posted 62 openings and filled 60. It had 1,200 applicants, 84 of whom self-identified as protected veterans, and hired 4 of them.

A result below the benchmark is not a violation in itself. It is a signal to look harder at your outreach assessment and personnel processes and to document what you will change. The kit's workbook builds this table from your requisition and applicant logs and keeps three years side by side, as the outreach assessment requires.

Covered contractors file the VETS-4212 with the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service between August 1 and September 30 each year that follows a calendar year in which they held a covered contract, one report per hiring location (VETS-4212 page; 41 CFR part 61-300). VETS states the reporting threshold as $200,000.

• Total employees by job category and hiring location, and how many are protected veterans
• New hires in the 12-month period, and how many are protected veterans
• Maximum and minimum number of employees at each hiring location during the period

The period is the 12 months before an ending date you choose at the end of a pay period between July 1 and August 31 (or December 31 with prior EEOC approval for the EEO-1). Veteran status can come from self-identification, voluntary disclosure or actual knowledge (61-300.10(e)). Reports can be filed online, by batch upload (encouraged for more than 10 hiring locations) or on paper.

Browse all kits on the compliance templates and record kits page. HR teams building their hiring process alongside the AAP may also want our hiring checklist and new hire onboarding checklist, where you can add the post-offer self-ID invitation as a step. For year-round paperwork in other sectors, see the NSPIRE inspection checklist.

This kit is a set of templates and record-keeping tools, not legal advice. Rules change: check the current text of 41 CFR parts 60-300, 60-741 and 61-300 and the OFCCP and VETS websites before you finalize a plan, and have a qualified employment lawyer or compliance adviser review your completed documents. Rules in this kit were checked on 10/24/2026. Greenwolf Tech Labs is not a law firm and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Labor, OFCCP or VETS.