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April 9, 2014

Obama Issues Executive Order on Gender Pay Ahead of Senate Vote 
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President Obama has taken new steps aimed at closing the gender pay gap.
Two new executive actions will bar federal contractors from punishing
workers who discuss their pay, and force them to disclose data about
what their employees earn by race and sex. Speaking Tuesday, Obama also
pressed lawmakers to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to help end
discrimination based on gender. He noted the wage gap is even wider for
women of color.

President Obama: "Today, the average full-time working woman earns just
77 cents for every dollar a man earns. For African-American women and
Latinas, it's even less. And in 2014, that's an embarrassment. It is
wrong. And this is not just an issue of fairness. It's also a family
issue and an economic issue, because women make up about half of our
workforce, and they're increasingly the breadwinners for a whole lot of
families out there."

According to data cited by the White House, African-American women earn
just 64 cents and Latina women just 56 cents for every dollar earned by
a white man. But critics have pointed out the White House may have a pay
gap of its own. Mc Clatchy found women at the White House earn 91 cents
for every dollar men make; the conservative American Enterprise
Institute put that figure at 88 cents on the dollar. The Senate is due
to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act today.

 

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