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Take Three: In Pursuit of Pay Equity
The role of women in the U.S. workforce has changed dramatically over the past century. Today, women compose nearly half of the workforce, but a gap persists between women's earnings and men's. On April 8, 2014 President Obama took two executive actions to counter pay discrimination and strengthen enforcement of equal pay laws. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Director Patricia A. Shiu answers three questions about those actions.
Isn't the pay gap a myth?
No. U.S. Census data indicates that women earn, on average, about 77 cents for every dollar paid to a man over the course of a year. The gap is even larger for women of color and women with disabilities. Different factors - like education, experience and occupation - contribute to the pay gap, but explaining the gap is different from disproving it; and even after factors like these are taken into account, the pay gap persists, in part because of discrimination.
Gender-based pay discrimination is already illegal. Why are these actions necessary?
Equal pay is a legal right for all workers - and a legal responsibility for employers - but it's not a reality yet. Just ask Lilly Ledbetter, who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of her career because she was being paid less than her male colleagues for doing the same work. She discovered the discrepancy thanks to an anonymous note, because her colleagues, like many workers, were not legally permitted to discuss their pay. The recently signed Executive Order would prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors, like Lilly's former employer, from retaliating against employees who choose to discuss their pay. The president also signed a memorandum directing Secretary Perez to establish regulations that would require federal contractors to submit data on their compensation practices, including data by sex and race.
Doesn't the department do that already?
In 2011, the department issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, soliciting feedback on a series of questions regarding a compensation data collection tool for federal contractors. Through the memorandum created last month, the president is instructing the department to take the next step, which would be to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking that outlines exactly how such data would be collected from contractors and used by OFCCP. Of course, the department isn't the only player involved in closing the pay gap. Our sister agencies, the private sector and even individual workers, have a role to play as well. By working together, we can make the pay gap a problem of the past.
Source: Patricia A. Shiu, Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs at the U.S. Department of Labor
This information is intended to be informational and should not be considered legal advice on any matter. | 
