[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]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 79 , No. 70 / Friday, April 11, 2014 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 20751]]


                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.

[[Page 20752]]

                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.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, April 8, 2014

[FR Doc. 2014-08448
Filed 4-10-14; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4510-23