Affirmative action in hiring consists of (1) helping the disadvantaged to become qualified for jobs offered and (2) removing artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers to employment which discriminate on the basis of racial or other impermissible classification. Affirmative action is widely assumed to give preference to minorities in hiring, such that charges of reverse discrimination have been leveled by nonminorities. Congress moved toward prohibiting reverse discrimination in corrections when it barred LEAA from conditioning grants on the adoption 'of a percentage ratio, quota system, or other program to achieve racial balance or to eliminate racial imbalance in any law enforcement agency....' To avoid charges of reverse discrimination, affirmative recruiting should be done simultaneously with and in addition to, not prior to or in lieu of, normal recruiting efforts. While affirmative action guidelines characteristically refer to 'qualified' job candidates, only the most qualified candidate may lawfully be chosen. In regard to those positions for which salaries are not rigidly set by the legislature, it is illegal to offer and pay higher salaries to minorities than nonminorities so as to attract the former. Because some agencies have imposed special requirements for clearance, documentation, and justification in writing when a nonminority candidate is offered a position or promoted, some administrators hire or promote a minority person to eliminate additional paperwork. An agency should either eliminate these requirements or extend them to all candidates and employees. Further, the text of an affirmative action plan should state than no reverse discrimination is contemplated or will be tolerated. Fourteen notes are provided.