A/50/476 English Page 40 resumés and sent to the same set of firms to apply for a job. These studies often find that employers are less likely to interview or offer a job to minority applicants and to female applicants. "Less direct evidence on discrimination comes from comparisons of earnings of blacks and whites, or males and females. Even after adjusting for characteristics that affect earnings (such as years of education and work experience), these studies typically find that blacks and women are paid less than their white male counterparts. The average income for Hispanic women with college degrees is less than the average for white men with high school degrees. "Last year alone, the Federal Government received over 90,000 complaints of employment discrimination. Moreover, 64,423 complaints were filed with state and local Fair Employment Practices Commissions, bringing the total last year to over 154,000. Thousands of other individuals filed complaints alleging racially motivated violence and discrimination in housing, voting, and public accommodations, to name just a few." 84/ 156. The President of the United States, for his part, has stated that his Administration will continue to support measures designed to ensure equality of opportunity in employment, education and access to public markets for Americans who are victims of racial discrimination or its ongoing effects, to the extent that such measures make a real contribution to the attainment of the objectives in pursuit of which they were instituted. However, he has embarked on a policy of recasting these measures by ordering all heads of public departments and agencies to comply with the following guidelines: "The policy program must be eliminated or reformed if it: (a) creates a quota; (b) creates preferences for unqualified individuals; (c) creates reverse discrimination; or (d) continues even after its equal opportunity purposes have been achieved." 85/ He also stated that "the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Adarand Inc. v. Pena requires strict scrutiny of the justifications for, and provisions of, a broad range of existing race-based affirmative action programs. You recently received a detailed legal analysis of Adarand from the Department of Justice. Consistent with that guidance, I am today instructing each of you to undertake, in consultation with and pursuant to the overall direction of the Attorney General, an evaluation of programs you administer that use race or ethnicity in decisionmaking. With regard to the programs that affect more than one agency, the Attorney General shall determine, after consultation, which agency shall take the lead in performing this analysis". 157. The principles of affirmative action which are today disputed in the United States have nevertheless convinced a number of States by their validity. For example, under a decree of 1983, Spain has developed a policy of "positive discrimination" in favour of the gypsy population, with a view to eliminating the barriers impeding access to school and scholastic advancement of gypsy pupils and "other groups in a similar social and economic situation". 86/ 158. Likewise, in the Netherlands, a law which entered into force on 1 July 1994 requires employers whose companies employ more than 35 workers to communicate to their local chamber of commerce the number of their employees who define themselves as members of "non-Dutch" ethnic groups. These employers must then /...