    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 4 (Monday, January 31, 2000)]
    [Pages 139-142]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks Announcing the Equal Pay Initiative

    January 24, 2000

        Thank you. Well, first of all, I think Sharon was a little
    apprehensive coming out here because she doesn't do public speaking for
    a living. But I thought she was magnificent, and I thank her for it. I
    want to thank Secretary Herman for her leadership on this issue, and
    Secretary Shalala, and our EEOC Chair, Ida Castro, who is here.
        We have a number of Members of Congress who are here, and I would
    like to acknowledge their presence, because this will be a bipartisan
    effort. I thank--we'll start down here--Congressman Eliot Engel from New
    York, Congressman Jim McGovern from Massachusetts, Congresswoman Ellen

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    Tauscher from California, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton from the
    District of Columbia, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson from Texas,
    Representative Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut, Representative Ted
    Strickland from Ohio, Representative Connie Morella from Maryland, and
    Representative Albert Wynn from Maryland. Thank you all for coming.
        I'd also like to thank Donna de Varona for being here. She was the
    World's Cup organizing chair last year, and herself a great athlete; and
    she's now working with General McCaffrey and the Olympics Committee to
    try to make sure that the Olympics in Sydney and all future Olympics are
    properly conducted in every conceivable way. Thank you very much for
    being here; we're delighted to see you.
        I want to thank Michelle Akers for coming here and telling the story
    of her life and her family's. I think all of us who saw the Women's
    World Cup final--and I had the privilege of being there, much to the
    dismay of my wife and daughter, I had the privilege of going--
    [laughter]--were truly overwhelmed by the experience. It was one of
    those just excruciatingly exciting moments. Grown people of both genders
    were weeping in our group.
        And afterward, you may remember that Michelle took quite a blow and
    was hurt. And I saw her walking through the stadium after the game, and
    I went up to her and I said, ``You're my favorite because you can take a
    punch, and I know something about that.'' [Laughter] And so I am
    delighted that she was able to come here and be with us today and
    delighted that she has both continued to fight for the interests of
    women athletes and never forgotten about the experience of her own
    mother.
        You heard Michelle talking about the role of Title IX. Whenever
    something really magnificent happens, like that World Cup final, it's a
    tribute to--it's not just a moment. In that moment, you see years and
    years and years of hard work and determination and victory and
    disappointment--all the things people go through--that is all lost in
    the glory of the moment. And something no one ever thinks about is, how
    did these people get this opportunity? What kind of framework was there
    so that they got to develop their talents and live their dreams?
        Well, that's what Title IX is all about, and we've had the honor,
    Hillary and I have, of having big events here at the White House to
    celebrate Title IX, and that wonderful HBO series on the history of
    women and sports, which I hope you've all seen--if you hadn't, you ought
    to make arrangements to do so. But if you were thinking about the
    application of the principle of Title IX to the workplace, and you think
    about Sharon Long's heroic story--and how many people like her there
    have been; how many countless people like her there have been, who
    didn't stand up and fight like she did--then you have to view the Equal
    Pay Act as Title IX for the playing field of life. That's why I'm glad
    both these women are here today.
        We want to make sure that in every field of endeavor, everyone knows
    that those who work hard and play by the rules will have the chance to
    make the most of their abilities. This is about the value of work, the
    values of our country. It's about whether people can truly have a chance
    to choose the life they will lead; and for women, increasingly, it's
    about whether they'll have the chance to succeed both at home and at
    work.
        That's what the family leave law was all about. Twenty million
    people have now taken advantage of that, to take some time off and not
    lose their jobs when there's a baby born or a sick parent. It's what the
    earned-income tax credit and the minimum wage and the child care
    reference and the strengthened pension coverage that these Members of
    Congress have worked with me on over these last few years are all about.
    And so today, because there's still a big need, as you have heard, we
    want to take new steps this year to reward work, to strengthen pay, and
    to make equal pay a reality for all Americans.
        First of all, I want to propose a $27-million equal pay initiative,
    which will be part of my budget, to expand opportunities for women and
    to do more to end wage discrimination. If Congress agrees, we'll be
    making the largest investment ever to promote equal pay. There's never
    been a better time to take on this challenge. We have the strongest
    economy in generations; more than 20 million

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    new jobs; next month, the longest economic expansion in American
    history.
        Working women have had a big role in this economic expansion. You
    heard Secretary Herman detailing that in just the last year. And women
    are sharing in the progress. Listen to this. Even though we have a
    higher percentage of women in the work force than ever before, the
    female unemployment rate is now the lowest since the end of World War
    II--the lowest female household poverty rate, female-headed household
    poverty rate we have ever recorded; wages for women up 25 percent since
    1992. The pay gap has narrowed by about half since the Equal Pay Act was
    passed back in 1963.
        But that means that we've still got half to go, after 37 years. And
    25 percent is a lot of money. You heard--Secretary Herman gave you her
    grocery store analogy. How would you like to show up for work every day,
    but only get to take home three out of every four paychecks? If someone
    tried to do that, there would be riots in the street; but if you get
    paid 75 percent for the same kind of work, it's as if you were only
    picking up three paychecks, instead of four, in four pay periods.
        The average woman has to work, therefore, an extra 17 weeks a year
    to earn what a similarly-qualified man in the same kind of job makes.
    And even after you make adjustments--and that's why I thought what
    Sharon said was so important today, to hammer home this point. Yes, some
    of this can be explained by differences in education, experience, and
    occupation. But even after you make all those adjustments, there is
    still a very significant gap. As women get older, the gap gets wider.
    And it is widest, regrettably, for women of color. African-American
    women earn 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men; Hispanic
    women, just 55 cents.
        Now, this is not just a women's issue. And I appreciate the fact
    that we have five women Members of Congress and four men here. I'm the
    son of a working mother, the grandson of a working grandmother, the
    husband of a working wife, and my daughter plans to follow suit. I've
    joked, every time I do an event like this, that the first time in our
    entire marriage that I made more money than Hillary was when I became
    President--[laughter]--and all I'm really doing is trying to give other
    men the privilege of riding on the same gravy train I did all these
    years. [Laughter]
        But it's not a women's issue. If a woman with a family is being
    denied equal pay for equal work, then her husband suffers, her children
    suffer, the family dynamic suffers. You think about how much time you
    spend at work every day; you can't go to a workplace and feel like
    you're getting the shaft and not have it have an impact that goes even
    beyond economics on your home life. And I'm glad--Sharon has her husband
    and family members here today. They all pay. Everybody pays. So this is
    a big issue in that sense.
        I'd also like to point out that it's a much bigger economic issue,
    even than the paycheck. Why? Because if you make less, then you have
    less going into your Social Security account, and you'll earn less in
    your Social Security check. Because if you make less, you're far less
    likely to be able to have your own retirement plan. And if you do have
    one, it'll be smaller.
        The average women who is about to retire--keep in mind the pay gap
    is 75 percent--the average women who is about to retire, if she even
    gets a pension in the first place, can expect only about half the
    pension benefits of the average man who retires. So the pay gap leads to
    an even bigger retirement gap. And this is something we have to think
    about more and more and more. And again, it's not just a women's issue.
        The poverty rate among elderly women is about twice the poverty rate
    for people over 65, generally. The number of people over 65 will double
    in the next 30 years. Americans today who are 65 years old already have
    a life expectancy in excess of 82 years. And women live a few years
    longer than men, on the average. This is a huge deal, with implications
    for our entire society, even for families where women do not experience
    discrimination in the workplace. They, too, will be affected in an aging
    society where more and more retirees are women who are severely
    disadvantaged.
        So today we want to close those gaps. First, I propose $10 million
    for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to train more

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    than 1,000 EEOC enforcement personnel to identify and respond to wage
    discrimination. This would be, believe it or not, the first time the
    EEOC has ever received funding for this kind of training. The resources
    will also be used to educate employers and workers about their
    responsibilities and their rights under the law.
        I made this request last year, and Congress failed to pass it. I
    again implore Congress to do the right thing and pass this funding. And
    I hope you will help us do this. If we train enough people to spot the
    problems early and work on them aggressively, the EEOC can help give us
    more stories like Sharon Long's, without the waiting time.
        Second, another important way to close the wage gap is to open new
    opportunities. So we propose a $17 million investment in the Department
    of Labor, to include resources to expand opportunities for women in
    nontraditional jobs. We're making headway in the construction industry.
    We're also going to put a special focus on the jobs of the future in the
    high-tech industry.
        Today--listen to this--men outnumber women by more than two-to-one
    in many high-tech occupations. These are among the highest paid jobs in
    our economy, paying on average almost 80 percent above the average jobs.
    Now, that's another element of the digital divide. We need to close the
    divide in employment and expand opportunities for women in these kinds
    of jobs.
        Third, and finally, we need to clearly send the message that wage
    discrimination against women is just as unacceptable as discrimination
    based on race or ethnicity. So once again I ask the Congress to pass the
    ``Paycheck Fairness Act'' sponsored by Representative DeLauro and
    Senator Tom Daschle. Pass it. It's a good bill. There is no excuse not
    to pass it. We plainly need to strengthen the law. We've had the other
    Equal Pay Act on the books since 1963, and we've still got a 25 percent
    gap. The evidence is there. We should have been able to eliminate this
    problem after 37 years, and we have to do more.
        Again, I say--and I thank, particularly, Representative Morella for
    being here--this is not a Democratic or a Republican issue; it's a
    family issue, and it's an American issue. It's about what kind of
    country we want our children to grow up in. I am delighted that these
    young women in the soccer team have come here as a team. And it must be
    a great thrill for them to see Michelle Akers, and I hope it spurs them
    to greater achievement in athletics and in academics. Most of them won't
    be professional soccer players. Most of them will be in the work force.
        We do not want them to grow up and have children in a country which
    still has not solved this problem. And we can do better. Again I say
    that the same rules that apply on the playing field ought to apply in
    life. People who work hard and play by the rules ought to be rewarded,
    and rewarded in proportion to their contribution, not their gender.
        This is a time of enormous promise. As I always say when I urge
    greater action to bring economic opportunity to poor areas that have
    been left behind, if we can't deal with this issue now, at a time of
    unprecedented prosperity, when in the wide world will we ever get around
    to dealing with it?
        I thank the Members of Congress for their commitment. I thank you
    for being here. I ask you to help us bear down and act, now.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:44 a.m. in Presidential Hall in the
    Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he
    referred to Sharon Long, who introduced the President; and Michelle
    Akers, member, 1999 Women's World Cup U.S. championship team. The
    President also referred to Title IX--Prohibition of Sex Discrimination,
    part of Public Law 92-318, the Education Amendments of 1972.