President Barack Obama is planning to sign two new executive
actions aimed at narrowing the wage gap between men and women Tuesday, even as
the Obama White House pays its female staffers less than men.
The first executive action will be an order banning federal
contractors from retaliation against employees who disclose or ask about their
wages, according to reports. His other executive action will require federal
contractors to submit data to the government about their employees compensation
by sex and race.
On Tuesday — the day advocates have labelled “Equal Pay Day”
to symbolize the amount of time women have to work to make as much as men did
the year before — Obama will sign the executive orders at the White House,
according to an AP report.
“From making the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act the first bill
he signed into law to these actions, the President has proven himself to be a
true champion for women in the workplace,” Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU senior
legislative counsel and co-chair of the National Paycheck Fairness Coalition,
said in a statement. “Congress still needs to do its part and pass the Paycheck
Fairness Act, but we’re one step closer to achieving pay equity thanks to this
White House.”
Despite advocates’ cheers about paycheck equity, the Obama
White House has paid women less than men for years.
According to a “2013 Annual Report
to Congress on White House Staff,” the
most recent available data on White House pay, the White House paid women an
estimated 11.8 percent less than men in 2013.
The year prior White House paid women 13 percent less than
men — and in 2011, according to the Free Beacon, women were paid 18 percent
less.
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