On National Equal Pay Day, President Obama is taking action to fight the gender wage gap among federal contractors. Today, he signed an executive order requiring the companies to publish their wage data by gender and race, thus pushing them to adhere to laws on equal pay, al Jazeera America reports."Penalizing pay secrecy is an important step that sends a strong message," says a VP for the National Women's Law Center.
The move doesn't apply to private companies, though a Senate vote today could help change that. But the bill in question has twice failed to get through Congress, al Jazeera notes. Meanwhile, a second executive order today bars federal contractors from retaliating against workers who exchange information on their salaries, theWashington Post notes. "Pay inequity is a real and persistent problem that continues to shortchange women, their families, and our economy as a whole," says Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett
source: http://www.newser.com/story/184992/obama-moves-to-shrink-gender-wage-divide.html
Good news, thank you for sharing. Indeed, inequality is pervasive as long as we do not address employment policies that allow women to be paid differently - just because they are women. The next challenge is in implementing this new law effectively - as there are so many loopholes traditionally used by agencies to justify lower salaries for women (e.g. sick days, pregnancy, maternity, parent care, etc.)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the info Heather!! Its crazy to think that wage inequality by gender and race still exists. I am interested to learn more about the findings in the published data regarding pay. As Dr. P said, there are many loopholes for justification in wage inequality, I'm interested in hearing what loopholes are actually justifiable.
ReplyDelete