[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 2000)]
[Pages 1067-1069]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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

[[Page 1068]]

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 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.

[[Page 1069]]

    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 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., Representatives Rosa L. DeLauro and Eleanor Holmes Norton, 
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Tom Harkin, and Secretary of Labor Alexis 
M. Herman made brief remarks.]

    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.