President Barack Obama will make his latest push to advance equal pay for women Friday, proposing a new rule that will require companies to report pay data by gender, race and ethnicity, the White House announced.
The rule, which would apply to companies that have 100 or more employees, will require employers to include salary information on a form already submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that currently includes employees’ sex and age.
Obama is set to officially announce the proposed rule at an event marking the seventh anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first piece of legislation Obama signed as President. The Lilly Ledbetter Act loosened the statute of limitations under which workers can sue employers for pay discrimination based on characteristics such as gender, race, age or disability.
The administration said the rule would help aid investigations on employers that are “unlawfully shortchanging workers” based on gender, race and ethnicity.
The proposed rule expands on a previously published rule by the Department of Labor, which would have applied only to federal contractors.
EEOC Chair Jenny Yang told reporters Thursday that the rule should be completed by 2016, with the first reports due September 2017.
