LIVE STREAMING

President Obama takes executive action for equal pay

In an effort to address the issue, President Obama signed two new executive orders on equal pay for women and people of color. 

MORE IN THIS SECTION

Expectations for Change

Beyond the statistics

Celebrating Year-Round

Community Colleges

Changes in the political

SHARE THIS CONTENT:


President Obama signs two new executive orders on "Equal Pay Day"

Today, Tuesday, April 8 is Equal Pay Day, a global campaign to close the gender pay gap among women. 

According to the Census Bureau, full-time working women still earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by men. 

In an effort to address the issue, President Obama signed two new executive orders on equal pay for women. 

President Obama will also sign a presidential memorandum instructing Labor Secretary, Tom Perez, to create new regulations requiring federal contractors to report salary summary data to the government which include gender and race breakdowns, according to Politico. 

In addition to the executive orders, the administration is pushing to update the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which made paying unequal wages to men and women who perform the same work illegal. 

The Paycheck Fairness Act will further enforce the dated 1963 Act. 

The president made a speech urging the Congress to pass the new regulation. 

"America deserves equal pay for equal work." Obama said during the press conference. "We've got to build an economy that works for everybody, not just those at the top."

"It should not be that complicated," said President Obama. "America you don't have to take this, put pressure on Congress about this issue, pay equality is not a myth its math," he added. 

The pay gap is significantly greater for women of color, stated in the White House press release, African American women earn 64 cents and Latinas earn 56 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man. 

Pay gaps among men and women of color. 

In 2012, Latino women made $521 in weekly wages in comparison to $592 in wages paid to men and African American women made $559 in weekly full-time wages compared to $665 in wages paid to men, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor statistics. 

 
  • LEAVE A COMMENT:

  • Join the discussion! Leave a comment.

  • or
  • REGISTER
  • to comment.
  • LEAVE A COMMENT:

  • Join the discussion! Leave a comment.

  • or
  • REGISTER
  • to comment.
00:00 / 00:00
Ads destiny link