    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 11, 2000]
    [Pages 896-898]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Observance of National Equal Pay Day
    May 11, 2000

    Forest Fires in Los Alamos, New Mexico

        The President.  Let me welcome you all here today. And before I
    acknowledge the Members of Congress and our participants, I need to say
    just a few words about the terrible fire that has surrounded and
    engulfed part of Los Alamos, New Mexico. I have been briefed on the
    situation. The fire is continuing to blaze. The residents have been
    evacuated. We have taken steps to protect our lab and the assets there.
    And most important, I just want to give my sympathies to the people who
    have lost their homes.
        Yesterday I declared an emergency for the area, making them eligible
    for disaster assistance. And today our FEMA Administrator, James Lee
    Witt; Secretary Richardson; our Forest Service Chief, Mike Dombeck; and the Director of the National Park Service, Bob
    Stanton, are all there, or will be
    shortly, to assess the situation and to monitor our efforts.
        This is a very, very difficult situation, and I know that the
    prayers and support of all Americans will be with the people out there.

    National Equal Pay Day

        I'd like to welcome Senator Harkin, Senator
    Feinstein, Representative DeLauro, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, Representatives Mink,
    Woolsey, Moore,
    Jackson Lee, and Eddie Bernice Johnson--all of whom are here today with
    Secretary Herman and Martin Baily, the Chair of our Council of Economic Advisers; Janice
    Lachance; our EEOC Chair, Ida
    Castro; and all the other people who are here
    representing working families. In just a few moments, I'll introduce the
    woman to my left, who will speak after me and is really what this day is
    all about.
        The first Mother's Day of the 21st century is shaping up to be a
    time of commitment and action led by women in America. On Sunday,
    mothers from around the Nation will march for safer communities free of
    gun violence. Today women and men are coming together to uphold core
    American values of equality, dignity, and justice.
        This has been designated Equal Pay Day. It marks the fact that the
    average woman had to work more than 4 months into this year just to earn
    what the average man earned last year. But equal pay is about more than
    dollars and cents. It's about right and wrong, because it's wrong when
    women still earn about 75 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the
    same line of work. It's wrong that average female workers have to work
    an extra 17 weeks to catch up to the wages of average male workers.
        It's true, of course, that some of these differences can be
    explained by education, age, and occupation. But even after adjusting
    for these factors, there remains a sizable pay gap. As women grow older,
    the gap grows wider. It is widest for women of color. African-American
    women earn 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men. In other
    words, they'd have to work all of last year and into July of this year
    before they earned as much as the average white male earned in 1999. For
    Hispanic women--listen to this--equal pay day won't come until late
    October.
        Equal pay is about all our mothers and sisters, our wives and
    daughters. It's about fathers and brothers and sons and husbands. It's a
    family issue. When women aren't paid equally, the entire family pays the
    price.
        We also know the cost extends far beyond one's work life. If you're
    making less, you'll get

    [[Page 897]]

    less Social Security. You'll have less to put aside for retirement. The
    average woman who's about to retire, if she even gets a pension, can
    expect about half the pension benefits of the average man who retires.
        Now is the time to close the wage gap. You have often heard me ask
    this question in the context of other national challenges, but if we
    have the lowest unemployment in over 30 years and the longest economic
    expansion in history and over 21 million new jobs, with the lowest
    poverty rate in 20 years and the lowest African-American and Hispanic
    unemployment rates ever recorded, the lowest female unemployment rate in
    40 years and the lowest female household poverty rate on the record, if
    we can't solve this problem now, when in the world will we ever get
    around to it? Now is the time to deal with this.
        Wages for women are up, and the pay gap has narrowed since the
    passage of the Equal Pay Act. But the gap is still far, far too wide,
    and women and their families are paying a terrible price.
        Today I received a report from the Council of Economic Advisers on
    opportunities for women in the new economy, particularly in information
    technology fields, jobs such as computer scientists and programmers.
    Information technology now accounts for about a third of our growth,
    although only 8 percent of direct employment. But these are high-wage
    jobs that pay about 80 percent above the national average.
        The CEA study shows that overall employment in information
    technology has grown by more than 80 percent since 1993. That's amazing.
    Overall employment has nearly doubled since 1983. But fewer than one of
    three of these high-tech, high-wage jobs are filled by women. Moreover,
    women are most underrepresented in new economy jobs where the pay is
    highest. For example, electrical engineering is just 10 percent female
    today. That is another digital divide.
        The report also found that after accounting for education and age
    and occupation, the pay gap in information technology jobs is,
    unfortunately, about the same as it is in other occupations. If we're
    going to make the most of the new economy, we have to close the door on
    discrimination wherever it exists and open the door for higher
    opportunities for all women who wish to work and are qualified to do so.
        Today I'm announcing a number of steps to do just that. First, our
    budget for the coming year includes a new $20 million initiative for the
    National Science Foundation for grants to universities to remove
    barriers to career advancement for women scientists and engineers and
    encourage more women to pursue these fields.
        This is especially important because we know the pay gap narrows
    sharply for women who have higher levels of education. When only one out
    of 10 engineers is a woman and only 30 percent of those in math and
    computer science jobs are women, we simply have to do more. It's
    important for reasons of fairness and justice. It's also important for
    our leadership in the global economy.
        Second, I'm establishing an equal pay task force at the Equal
    Employment Opportunity Commission to ensure that our EEOC field staff
    have the full range of support they need to effectively investigate
    charges of pay discrimination.
        Third, and perhaps most important, again today I renew my call to
    Congress to send the clear message that wage discrimination against
    women is just as unacceptable as discrimination based on race or
    ethnicity. The best way to do that is by acting this year. Support
    legislation to strengthen existing wage discrimination laws. Support our
    equal pay initiative in next year's budget to provide $10 million for
    EEOC efforts to help in wage discrimination and $17 million for
    Secretary Herman's efforts to train women in nontraditional jobs,
    including those in high-tech fields.
        Thirty-five years ago, when President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay
    Act--now more than 35 years ago--he said, I quote, ``It adds to our laws
    another structure basic to democracy.'' For over 7 years now, the Vice
    President and I have tried to build on that basic idea, to include more
    women in every aspect of our administration's life and to create more
    opportunities for all Americans, women and men equally. We have not
    succeeded in closing the pay gap. We need the help of Congress to do it.
    It is very, very important.
        We all say we want to support work and family. We all say we want to
    open new doors of opportunity. Now's our chance, and we ought to take
    it.
        I'd like to introduce now someone who knows about the equal pay
    challenge because she has

    [[Page 898]]

    lived with wage discrimination. She has fought against wage
    discrimination, and thankfully, she has won. She came here from
    Baltimore today to tell her story. Ladies and gentlemen, Karen Simmons-
    Beathea.

     [At this point, Ms. Simmons-Beathea,
    who was the plaintiff in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission case
    against the Baltimore Cable Access Corp., made brief remarks, followed
    by Representatives Rosa L. DeLauro and
    Eleanor Holmes Norton, Senators Dianne
    Feinstein and Tom Harkin, and Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman.]

        The President.  I just wanted to say one final thing; some of the
    Members have alluded to it. But because of the way we introduced each
    other, seriatim, I don't think we adequately expressed our appreciation
    to Karen Simmons-Beathea, who really
    represents what this is all about, and I think we ought to give her
    another hand. [Applause]
        And I will just leave you with this thought. There are a few issues
    that we're working on today that, unfortunately, tend to get cast in
    Washington, DC, in terms of a partisan divide. But out in the country,
    there isn't one. You know, when I was a young boy, I lived with a
    working grandfather and a working grandmother. I was raised by a working
    mother. Nobody has lived in one of these families for any period of time
    without having at least one encounter with some kind of problem we're
    talking about. And if it ever happens to you, especially when you are a
    child, you never get over it.
        If you go out and talk to Americans around this country, Republicans
    and independents and Democrats will all tell you more or less the same
    thing about this issue. This is not a political or a partisan issue
    anywhere else. Now, you heard Eleanor Holmes Norton saying if somebody
    doesn't like our bills or they want to talk about the practical impact,
    well, we can talk about how to word the language and deal with the
    practical consequences. But whether we do something or not and whether
    what we do is meaningful or not is not a political or a partisan issue
    in America, and it shouldn't be here.
        And if all of the people who have ever experienced anything like
    what Karen talked about today would talk to all of the Members of
    Congress about it, we would get something done, something meaningful,
    this year.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

     Note:  The President spoke at 12:20 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the
    White House. The National Equal Pay Day proclamation of May 11 is listed
    in Appendix D at the end of this volume.