Obama cracks down on pay gap with rules for reporting pay data by gender, race

President Obama announced Friday a new rule that will require companies with 100 or more employees to report pay data by gender, race, and ethnicity, CNN reports. The information will be acquired on forms submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which already collects information about employees' sex and age.

Friday's announcement arrives on the seventh anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first piece of legislation Obama signed as president; it loosened the statue of limitations for workers to sue employers for pay discrimination based on gender, race, age, or a disability. Republicans have spoken out against Obama's measures, arguing that gender discrimination is already illegal so additional actions are not necessary, The New York Times reports.

"This won't solve every problem," Obama said Friday. "We've still got to get more women and girls into high paying fields like science and technology, engineering and math. We've still got to make sure women are not penalized or held back in the workplace simply for starting a family." He went on to joke that, "Guys, we're responsible for the family thing too. They're already doing more work than we are in getting that thing going."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The first reports will be due September 2017. Watch part of his announcement below. Jeva Lange