PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES EQUAL PAY INITIATIVE

On Monday, January 24, President Clinton announced a $27 million Equal Pay Initiative to be included in his fiscal year 2001 budget request and urged prompt passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act to further strengthen anti-wage discrimination efforts. He proposed that $10 million of this initiative go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to increase compliance by employers with equal pay laws through strategically focused enforcement of and training on wage discrimination issues. The President also called for an expanded information campaign designed to educate employees and employers about rights and responsibilities under the Equal Pay Act. The Department of Labor would receive the balance of the proposed funding to combat pay inequities.

The President was introduced at the White House announcement event by Sharon Long, a victim of pay discrimination from Baltimore. With the help of EEOC, she waged a four-year battle against her former employer to be paid the same as men at her job who did the same work as she, but were being paid more than twice her salary. Calling her stand "heroic," the President pondered aloud: "How many countless people like her. . .didn't stand up and fight like she did?"

At the White House for the announcement, EEOC Chairwoman Ida L. Castro said afterwards that the experience of Sharon Long is "all too often the case for many women in the workplace for whom equal pay for equal work' is not a slogan but a right and a necessity for themselves and their families." Ms. Castro also lauded the professionalism and persistence of EEOC attorney Deborah Lawrence who fought through employer recalcitrance and stalemates to bring Ms. Long's case to a successful conclusion.

Government and private sector studies indicate that women currently earn about 75 cents for every dollar earned by men, meaning that women must work 15 months to earn what men make in 12 months. In 1998, EEOC received about 6,200 wage-related charges, approximately 8 percent of all charges filed with the agency.

"The President's equal pay initiative is the first to support EEOC's enforcement efforts in this regard since jurisdiction of the Equal Pay Act was transferred to EEOC in 1978," said Ms. Castro. The $10 million proposed by the President would enable EEOC to:

• provide, for the first time ever, training and technical assistance to employers on how to comply with equal pay requirements;
• develop public service announcements to educate employees and employers on their rights and responsibilities under equal pay laws; and
• train over 1,000 EEOC enforcement staff in identifying and responding to wage discrimination, the first such EEOC training since the agency assumed responsibility for the Equal Pay Act in 1978.

This page was last modified on February 1, 2000.

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