Early this morning in Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden and the White House are moving forward with narrowing the gap for gender pay across the United States. He will sign an executive order that allows the government to ban seeing the history of the employee’s prior salary. By banning the sight of the history of the employee’s former salary, the employer can break the cycle of discriminatory pay that women have for the past many decades. This executive order will also entail the boost of equal pay in genders and transparency of the wages for federal employees.
Equal Pay Day is a special holiday that President Biden will recognize to bring attention to the work women must need to make a living in comparison to men who are more often privileged in getting higher pay with the same amount of work that women do.
“Conducting these pay equity audits helps address and prevent pay disparities based on gender, race, or ethnicity,” said the White House.
In addition to this, the Biden Administration wants to increase better-paying jobs for women in Congress because it is currently dominated by older Caucasian males. Women who are working full-time during the pandemic are paid better than those working full-time with low-paying jobs. The gap is even bigger for women of color.
The government is not in the fight alone for equal gender pay. There was a U.S. Women’s soccer team that moved forward with minimizing the gender pay gap with their $24 million dispute last February. The settlement includes matching the pay and bonuses that men make in their soccer team. Midfielder Megan Rapinoe said, “I think we’re going to look back on this moment and just think, ‘Wow, what an incredible turning point in the history of U.S. Soccer that changed the game and changed the world, really, forever.’”
Yesterday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission addressed their concerns for discrimination on caregivers because they are restricted in providing specific services during the pandemic. Some actions the Biden Administration will take to enforce equal pay includes:
- Providing relief for women struggling through the pandemic with the American Rescue Plan.
- Increasing pay for childcare workers.
- Relieving taxes for families with childcare expenses using the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.
- Increasing minimum wage to $15 for federal workers.
- Signing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that increases better-paying jobs for women and people of color in industries like transportation, clean energy, and broadband.
- Issuing an Executive Order that pushes for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the federal workplace.
The U.S. government still has a long way to press on their movement for equal pay not just in federal work, but across all industries. This will at least be a huge step forward to relieve the financial burden that low-income families with children have to face. As long as the companies are monitored and the gender wage gap is done correctly, women will be seeing a bright future for the careers they pursue.
