National Equal Pay Day, 2014

Vol. 79

Thursday,

No. 69

April 10, 2014

Part IV

The President

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Proclamation 9101--National Equal Pay Day, 2014

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 9101 of April 7, 2014

National Equal Pay Day, 2014

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Throughout our Nation's history, brave women have torn
down barriers so their daughters might one day enjoy
the same rights, same chances, and same freedoms as
their sons. Despite tremendous progress, too many women
are entering the workforce to find their mothers' and
grandmothers' victories undermined by the unrealized
promise of equal pay for equal work. On National Equal
Pay Day, we mark how far into the new year women would
have to work to earn the same as men did in the
previous year, and we recommit to making equal pay a
reality.

Women make up nearly half of our Nation's workforce and
are primary breadwinners in 4 in 10 American households
with children under age 18. Yet from boardrooms to
classrooms to factory floors, their talent and hard
work are not reflected on the payroll. Today, women
still make only 77 cents to every man's dollar, and the
pay gap is even wider for women of color. Over her
lifetime, the average American woman can expect to lose
hundreds of thousands of dollars to the earnings gap, a
significant blow to both women and their families. In
an increasingly competitive global marketplace, we must
use all of America's talent to its fullest potential--
because when women succeed, America succeeds.

More than half a century after President John F.
Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, my Administration
remains devoted to improving our equal pay laws and
closing the pay gap between women and men. From signing
the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to establishing the
Equal Pay Task Force, I have strengthened pay
discrimination protections and cracked down on
violations of equal pay laws. And I will continue to
push the Congress to step up and pass the Paycheck
Fairness Act, because this fight will not be over until
our sisters, our mothers, and our daughters can earn a
living equal to their efforts.

The time has passed for us to recognize that what
determines success should not be our gender, but rather
our talent, our drive, and the strength of our
contributions. So, today, let us breathe new life into
our founding ideals. Let us march toward a day when, in
the land of liberty and opportunity, there are no
limits on our daughters' dreams and no glass ceilings
on the value of their work.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim April 8, 2014, as
National Equal Pay Day. I call upon all Americans to
recognize the full value of women's skills and their
significant contributions to the labor force,
acknowledge the injustice of wage inequality, and join
efforts to achieve equal pay.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
eighth.