It’s been seven years since the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first piece of legislation President Obama signed. That law was a small step toward equality, but the United States needs big steps, and Congress has (predictably) blocked that progress since. So Obama, who has been increasingly willing to do what he can to work around Congress, is taking that strategy to the push for equal pay:
President Barack Obama will make his latest push to advance equal pay for women Friday, proposing a new rule that will require companies to report pay data by gender, race and ethnicity, the White House announced.
The rule, which would apply to companies that have 100 or more employees, will require employers to include salary information on a form already submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that currently includes employees' sex and age.
That will make it easier to see and investigate patterns in companies’ pay practices. Of course, it’ll take a while for this rule to be finalized and it wouldn’t go into effect until September 2017—which is another reminder of how very important it is to elect a Democratic president this November. Do you think Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or Marco Rubio is going to make companies report information that might show they’re discriminating?