Washington, D.C. — Jocelyn Frye, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement responding to news that the Trump administration will stay a rule that would have advanced equal pay in the workplace:
President Trump has abruptly marched in full retreat from any real commitment to equal pay with the issuance of a memo by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to stop the implementation of a recent measure requiring the collection of pay data from employers. This action will weaken equal pay enforcement, limit pay transparency, and undermine fair pay practices in the workplace. Make no mistake: This is a giant step backward for women and for equal pay.
President Trump and Ivanka Trump have sent a message loud and clear: They are neither committed to making progress on equal pay nor have any intention of pursuing or preserving concrete measures to help ensure that women and men are paid fairly for their work. Moreover, halting critical progress on equal pay without putting forward any new ideas is a do-nothing strategy that undermines equality and harms workers where it hurts most—in their pockets.
Background on the EEO-1 form:
The action taken by the OMB directs the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop moving forward with implementing critical advancements made by the Obama administration to the Employer Information Report, often referred to as the EEO-1 form. Private sector employers with 100 or more employees are required to file the form, providing data on the race, ethnicity, and gender of their workforce across 10 occupational categories annually.
The data submitted are not released publicly but are used by federal agencies to identify workforce disparities and ensure compliance with the law. This commonsense change proposed by the Obama administration would have provided enforcement agencies with better information about how women and men are paid across different job categories. This kind of information can be a vital tool for enforcement agencies when investigating discrimination claims and determining how best to deploy their limited resources. The measure was finalized after multiple rounds of public comments and meetings, which fairly balanced the interests of both employers and employees alike.
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Devon Kearns at 202.741.6290 or [email protected].