Dive Brief:
- President Obama announced today "several" actions the White House will undertake to support pay equality in honor of the seventh anniversary of the signing of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
- Of most potential interest to HR managers, the EEOC, alongside the Department of Labor, is "publishing a proposal" to collect summary pay data by gender, race and ethnicity from businesses with 100 or more employees annually – potentially affecting as many as 63 million employees and a large chunk of American employers.
- Since the original signing of the Fair Pay Act, the pay gap has closed 2.8 percentage points, following a flat period between 2001 and 2012.
Dive Insight:
Other actions the president announced include renewing efforts to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which the White House says "would give women additional tools to fight pay discrimination." They will also host "The United State of Women" summit on May 23.
In the HR space, pay transparency has gained traction as a way to close the pay gap as well as improve recruitment and retention. As more stringent laws pass that are similar to a lauded one in California, employers will need to push resources towards paying attention to mandates in order to stay ahead of the curve.