[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.