THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 10,1998
President Clinton
Calls for Passage of Equal Pay Legislation and
Releases Council of Economic Advisers' Report on the Wage Gap
June 10, 1998
Today, President Clinton will commemorate the 35th anniversary of President Kennedy's signing of the Equal Pay Act and will urge passage of legislation to strengthen the laws that prohibit wage discrimination against women. In addition, the President will release a Council of Economic Advisers' (CEA) report on the gender wage gap, and announce a Department of Labor report that provides a historical perspective of the wage gap. The President will be joined by Dr. Dorothy Height, President Emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women, who also attended the signing ceremony for the Equal Pay Act on June 10, 1963.
Legislation to Improve Enforcement of Wage Discrimination Laws. The President will call on Congress to pass legislation, introduced by Senator Tom Daschle and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, to strengthen laws prohibiting wage discrimination. Highlights of this legislation include:
Increased Penalties for the Equal Pay Act (EPA). The legislation
adds full compensatory and punitive damages as remedies, in
addition to the liquidated damages and back pay awards currently
available under the EPA. This proposal would put gender-based
wage discrimination on equal footing with wage discrimination
based on race or ethnicity, for which uncapped compensatory and
punitive damages are already available.
Non-retaliation provision. The bill would prohibit employers
from punishing employees for sharing salary information with their
co-workers. Currently, employers are free to take action against
employees who share wage information. Without the ability to learn
about wage disparities, it is difficult for women to evaluate
whether there is wage discrimination.
Training, Research, and Pay Equity Award. The Daschle-DeLauro
bill provides for increased training for Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission employees on matters involving the
discrimination of wages; research on discrimination in the payment
of wages; and the establishment of the "The National Award for Pay
Equity in the Workplace," which will recognize and promote the
achievements of employers that have made strides to eliminate pay
disparities.
CEA Report on the Wage Gap. The President will announce a report
by the CEA that shows that a significant gap between the wages of women and men remains today although it has narrowed substantially since the signing of the Equal Pay Act.
Gender Pay Gap Has Narrowed: Today, Women Earn 75 Cents for Every
Dollar Men Earn. In 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was signed, women
earned 58 cents for every dollar men earned. Today, women earn
about 75 cents for every dollar men earn -- a 29-percent increase
over the 1963 levels. The gender gap has narrowed more rapidly
among younger women and among married women with children. And
relative to all male workers, wage gains have been faster for
black and white women than for Hispanic women.
Rise in Work Experience And Move To Higher-Paying Jobs Explain
Part of Narrowing of Wage Gap. Over the past 20 years, increases
in women's average work experience and movement into higher-paying
occupations have played a major role in increasing women's pay
relative to men's. Changes in family status, in industry
structure, and unionization have also worked to narrow the wage
gap, while the rising returns to skills and increased wage
inequality would have, by themselves, widened the pay gap.
Much of Gender Gap Is "Unexplained." In the 1980s, about
one-third of the gender pay gap was explained by differences in
the skills and experience that women bring to the labor market and
about 28 percent was due to differences in industry, occupation,
and union status among men and women. This leaves over one-third
of the gender pay gap "unexplained" by factors such as educational
attainment, work experience, and occupational choice.
Labor Market Discrimination Persists. The evidence is that labor
market discrimination against women persists. One indirect and
rough measure of the extent of discrimination remaining in the
labor market is the "unexplained" difference in pay. And academic
studies -- whether looking at pay differences between men and
women in very similar jobs or by comparing pay to specific
measures of productivity -- have consistently found evidence of
ongoing discrimination in the labor market.
Department of Labor Report Provides a Historical Perspective on
the Wage Gap. The President also will announce a Department of Labor report that provides a thirty-five year perspective on the wage gap. This report focuses on three periods since the signing of the Equal Pay Act -- 1960-1975, 1975-1985, and 1985-1997 -- and highlights the increased participation of women in the labor force, the changing occupations of women, and the emergence of more women-owned businesses.
Women's Labor Force Participation Has Increased. Women's labor
force participation rate rose from 37.7 percent in 1960 to almost
60 percent in 1997.
Increased Contributions by Women to Family Income. Between 1995
and 1996 alone, the number of families with two working parents
increased by nearly half a million, making equal pay even more of
a family issue. In these years, both parents were employed in
63.9 percent of married-couple families with children 18 and
younger, while 28.2 percent of these families had an employed
father and homemaker mother.
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