[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 123, 111th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
PROCLAMATION 8366--APR. 28, 2009

Proclamation 8366 of April 28, 2009
National Equal Pay Day, 2009
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Harriet Beecher Stowe helped galvanize the abolitionist movement with
her groundbreaking literature. Frances Perkins advised President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and led the Department of Labor during one of
its most challenging periods in history. Barbara McClintock helped
unlock the mysteries of genetics and earned a Nobel Prize. These and
countless other women have broken barriers and changed the course of our
history, allowing women and men who followed them the opportunity to
reach greater heights.
Despite these achievements, 46 years since the passage of the Equal Pay
Act and 233 years since our Nation was established with the principle of
equal justice under law, women across America continue to experience
discrimination in the form of pay inequity every day. Women in the
United States earn only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, and today
marks the inauspicious occasion when a woman's earnings finally catch up
with a man's from the previous year. On National Equal Pay Day, we
underscore the importance of this issue to all Americans.
If we wish to honor our Nation's highest ideals, we must end wage
discrimination. The Founders established a timeless framework of rights
for the American people. Generation after generation has worked and
sacrificed so that this framework might be applied equally to all
Americans. To honor these Americans and stay true to our founding
ideals, we must carry forward this tradition and breathe life into these
principles by supporting equal pay for men and women.
Wage discrimination has a tangible and negative impact on women and
families. When women receive less than their deserved compensation, they
take home less for themselves and their loved ones. Utilities and
groceries are more difficult to afford. Mortgages and rent bills are
harder to pay. Children's higher education is less financially feasible.
In

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later years of life, the retirement that many women have worked so hard
for-and have earned-is not possible. This problem is particularly dire
for women who are single and the sole supporters of their families.
Women should not and need not endure these consequences.
My Administration is working to advance pay equity in the United States.
The first bill I signed into law as President, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair
Pay Act of 2009, allows more women to challenge pay discrimination by
extending the timeline within which complaints can be filed. This law
advances the struggle for equal pay, but it is only an initial step. To
continue this progress, I issued an Executive Order establishing the
White House Council on Women and Girls. This high-level body, composed
of Cabinet members and heads of sub-Cabinet agencies, is charged with
advancing the rights and needs of women, including equal pay.
Still, Government can only advance this issue so far. The collective
action of businesses, community organizations, and individuals is
necessary to ensure that every woman receives just treatment and
compensation. We Americans must come together to ensure equal pay for
both women and men by reminding ourselves of the basic principles that
underlie our Nation's strength and unity, understanding the unnecessary
sacrifices that pay inequity causes, and recalling the countless women
leaders who have proven what women can achieve.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 28, 2009, as
National Equal Pay Day. I call upon American men and women, and all
employers, to acknowledge the injustice of wage discrimination and to
commit themselves to equal pay for equal work.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day
of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
third.
BARACK OBAMA