Advancing Pay Equality Through Compensation Data Collection

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 70 (Friday, April 11, 2014)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 20751-20752]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-08448]

Memorandum of April 8, 2014

Advancing Pay Equality Through Compensation Data
Collection

Memorandum for the Secretary of Labor

While working women have made extraordinary progress
over the past five decades since enactment of the Equal
Pay Act of 1963, they still earn only 77 cents for
every dollar that a man earns. For African-American
women and Latinas, the pay gap is even greater. This
pay differential shortchanges women and their families
by thousands of dollars a year, and potentially
hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
Moreover, given the connected impact on benefits and
retirement savings, the loss and the accompanying
threat to economic security are even greater.

Federal law, including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Executive
Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal Employment
Opportunity), specifically prohibits compensating men
and women differently for the same work. Effective
enforcement of this mandate, however, is impeded by a
lack of sufficiently robust and reliable data on
employee compensation, including data by sex and race.
The National Equal Pay Task Force, which I created to
improve enforcement of equal pay laws, identified this
lack of data as a barrier to closing the persistent pay
gap for women and minorities. To address this lack of
data, the Department of Labor (DOL) solicited
stakeholder input on the design and operation of a
potential compensation data collection tool in an
Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) published
on August 10, 2011. The extensive response to the ANPRM
provides ample information from which DOL can develop a
tool that will enhance the effectiveness of its
enforcement.

Therefore, I hereby direct you to propose, within 120
days of the date of this memorandum, a rule that would
require Federal contractors and subcontractors to
submit to DOL summary data on the compensation paid
their employees, including data by sex and race. In
doing so, you shall consider approaches that: (1)
maximize efficiency and effectiveness by enabling DOL
to direct its enforcement resources toward entities for
which reported data suggest potential discrepancies in
worker compensation, and not toward entities for which
there is no evidence of potential pay violations; (2)
minimize, to the extent feasible, the burden on Federal
contractors and subcontractors and in particular small
entities, including small businesses and small
nonprofit organizations; and (3) use the data to
encourage greater voluntary compliance by employers
with Federal pay laws and to identify and analyze
industry trends. To the extent feasible, you shall
avoid new record-keeping requirements and rely on
existing reporting frameworks to collect the summary
data. In addition, in developing the proposal you
should consider independent studies regarding the
collection of compensation data.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.

You are hereby authorized and directed to publish this
memorandum in the Federal Register.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, April 8, 2014