Obama issues orders seeking equal pay for women - Los Angeles Times

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WASHINGTON — President Obama used his executive power and a hot-button issue to try to stoke support from a key election-year constituency Tuesday, as he issued two directives aimed at ensuring federal contractors pay women as much as men for equal work.

Surrounding himself with female supporters at the White House, Obama signed an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who talk about how much money they make. Advocates say secrecy about salaries is a major contributor to the gap in average pay between male and female workers in the United States, which the White House says means women make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.

The president also ordered contractors to report data to the government showing the compensation paid to employees by gender and race.

Democrats have repeatedly tried and failed to pass legislation imposing similar rules on most employers, and they are picking up the effort again this week in a party-wide push tied to Tuesday's Equal Pay Day. The proposed Paycheck Fairness Act is expected to be put to a vote for the third time in the Senate on Wednesday, but is not expected to overcome Republican opposition.

Still, Democrats see the legislation as an effective tool to rally women, particularly middle- and low-income working women, whose votes they'll need to retain their Senate majority in November. Democrats typically win a majority of female voters in general elections, but are trying to avoid a repeat of the 2010 midterm shellacking that saw many of those voters either stay home or shift parties.

As he signed the executive actions Tuesday, Obama returned to the message he honed when he won over female voters in 2012.

"America should be a level playing field, a fair race for everybody, a place where anybody who's willing to work hard has a chance to get ahead," Obama said, mocking Republicans as trapped in another era.

"I don't know why you would resist the idea that women should be paid the same as men, and then deny that that's not always happening out there," the president said. "If Republicans in Congress want to prove me wrong, if they want to show that they in fact do care about women being paid the same as men, then show me. They can start tomorrow. They can join us in this, the 21st century."

Republicans noted that federal law already barred workplace gender discrimination and argued that additional rules would limit women's choices and burden employers. They turned to female lawmakers Tuesday to make the case.

"Let's focus on those policies that are actually going to move forward on a jobs plan that will create a higher paycheck, more opportunities and that opportunity for a better life, which we all want," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) "Two out of three small businesses right now are being started by women. ... So women understand the direct impact of the policies and the impact that they have on them."

Republican senators offered potential amendments to the Democratic bill to show they are on the side of women. One measure, led by Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, echoes the president's action by updating current law with a provision that would prevent retaliation against workers who discuss their salaries. Another, backed by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, would allow workers to take time off instead of overtime pay.

"This isn't just a way to help workers. It's a way to especially help working mothers," McConnell said.

Democrats' cheering of Equal Pay Day was muffled by a debate over the size and root causes of the pay gap. Some economists and commentators take issue with the White House statistic, saying it exaggerates the gap by looking at women's salaries in the aggregate and not accounting for differences in education level, hours worked or experience.

When the salaries for White House staff members are analyzed the same way, women turn out to make 88 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to a recent study conducted by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. The analysis of 2013 payroll data found that the 228 female employees in the Obama White House were paid a median annual salary of $65,000 this year, compared with $73,729 for the 231 male employees.

Press Secretary Jay Carney said the numbers reflected the fact that more women than men hold lower-level positions in the White House. Women and men with equal duties make equal pay, he said.

"But at every level, here at the White House, you're paid the same for the work that you do, regardless of your gender," Carney said, noting that Obama has several senior-level female advisors. Carney said the 88-cent figure was "not 100, but it is better than the national average."

Republicans seized on the numbers as evidence that the Democrats were trying to enforce a double standard.

"Why is the White House judged by one standard and the rest of the country by another?" Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski wrote in a memo to reporters. "There's a disparity not because female engineers are making less than male engineers at the same company with comparable experience. The disparity exists because a female social worker makes less than a male engineer — just as a female engineer would out-earn a male social worker. The difference isn't because of their genders; it's because of their jobs."

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

Lisa Mascaro and Michael A. Memoli in the Washington bureau contributed to this report.

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Obama, GOP trade sharp rhetoric in equal pay debate - USA TODAY

President Obama sharply criticized Republican lawmakers on Tuesday for their opposition Paycheck Fairness Act.(Photo: Win McNamee Getty Images)

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Tuesday touted executive action he was taking to help narrow the gender pay gap, while pressing Republican lawmakers to get behind the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act.

Obama charged that Republicans are "gumming up the works" on the issue of pay equity, and called on Americans to put pressure on lawmakers to pass the legislation. It would impose new regulations on how companies pay employees in an effort to ensure women are not unfairly earning less than their male counterparts.

The Senate is expected to vote on the legislation on Wednesday, but it has little chance in the GOP-controlled House.

"This isn't just about treating women fairly," Obama said. "This is about Republicans seemingly opposing any efforts to even the playing field for working families. I don't know why you would resist the idea that women should be paid the same as men and then deny that that's not always happening out there."

He added, "If Republicans in Congress want to prove me wrong, if they want to show that they do care about women being paid the same as men, then show me. They can start tomorrow. They can join us, in this, the 21st century and vote yes on the Paycheck Fairness Act."

The sharp barbs against GOP lawmakers came during remarks by Obama before he signed an executive order and presidential memorandum to mark National Equal Pay Day --the day on the calendar that marks the extra time the average American woman would need to work to earn as much as her average male counterpart did in the previous year.

Obama signed an executive order banning federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their compensation. He also signed a presidential memorandum instructing Labor Secretary Tom Perez to establish new regulations requiring federal contractors to submit to the Department of Labor summary data on compensation paid to their employees, including data by sex and race.

The Department of Labor will use the data to encourage voluntary compliance with equal pay laws and allow more targeted enforcement by focusing efforts where there are discrepancies, according to the White House.

Before Obama spoke, the Republicans dismissed Obama's executive action and Senate Democrats' push on the Paycheck Fairness Act as a "desperate political ploy."

"First, it is already illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender. It's been against the law to pay a woman less than a man with comparable experience in the same job since the Equal Pay Act of 1963," GOP officials said in a memo distributed to reporters. "The 'fix' that Democrats propose, then, won't change that. It would, however, tightly regulate how employers can pay their employees. This law will not create "equal" pay, but it will make it nearly impossible for employers to tie compensation to work quality, productivity and experience, reduce flexibility in the workplace, and make it far easier to file frivolous lawsuits that line the pockets of trial lawyers."

Obama was introduced at the White House signing ceremony by Lilly Ledbetter, the plaintiff in a landmark discrimination case and the namesake for the first bill Obama signed into law. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Act makes clear that pay discrimination claims on the basis of sex, race, national origin, age, religion and disability "accrue" whenever an employee receives a discriminatory paycheck.

Democrats, including Obama, have repeatedly highlighted census figures that show women on average make 77 cents for every dollar that men earn.

But Republicans insist that the figure doesn't tell the whole story.

To make their point, Republicans have noted that the White House has its own gender pay gap. A recent study by the conservative American Enterprise Institute showed that female White House staff members make on average 88 cents for every dollar a male staff member earns.

"There's a disparity not because female engineers are making less than male engineers at the same company with comparable experience," the GOP memo said. "The disparity exists because a female social worker makes less than a male engineer — just as a female engineer would out-earn a male social worker. The difference isn't because of their genders; it's because of their jobs. The Paycheck Fairness Act wouldn't change that."

Tuesday's executive action on federal contractors by Obama follows his announcement in February that he was signing an order in February requiring federal contractors to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour on new contracts starting next year.

A push to raise the federal minimum wage for all workers is also facing stiff GOP opposition and appears unlikely to be passed.

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Obama, end rampant deportations

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Sally Kohn: Under Obama administration, some 400,000 immigrants a year deported
• She says majority deported had no criminal record, families torn by deportations
• She says GOP immigration reform efforts a ruse; party obstructs fix to broken system
• Kohn: Obama must use executive discretion to halt rampant deportations

Editor's note: Sally Kohn is a CNN political commentator, progressive activist and columnist. Follow her on Twitter @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- Under President Obama, the United States of America has deported about 400,000 undocumented immigrants each year. That's an average of 1,100 people, many of them moms and dads and children, per day. These are people who are in the United States because our businesses lure-- and rely on--many of them to do the unskilled jobs Americans don't want to do. They are people who have come to the United States as generations came before them, to feed their families and fulfill a dream. And we're kicking them out. Every day, in busloads.

This weekend, thousands of undocumented immigrants and their allies took to the streets of Washington and communities across the country to demand that President Obama put an end to reckless and rampant deportations in America. "Not one more," the marchers chanted.

There are literally 11 million-plus reasons to stop deportations in the United States -- 11 million undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation every day. There is also the collateral damage done to their citizen families who don't want their lives torn apart and to their co-workers, employers and community members. So what are the reasons not to stop our abysmal, extreme rate of deportations? There are basically three.

Sally Kohn

First, anti-immigrant activists insist that the people being deported are dangerous criminals — and that they should be deported faster and at even higher rates. Yet Monday, The New York Times released an analysis of government records revealing that of the nearly 2 million people deported since President Obama took office, two-thirds had no criminal record whatsoever or had committed only minor infractions, such as traffic violations.

Sure, on a technical level anyone in the United States without official permission has broken the law. But let's not over-dramatize the reality. Technically, everyone who has ever driven above the speed limit or jaywalked has also broken the law. And many undocumented immigrants in the United States originally arrived with authorized work or travel visas and simply stayed in the country past the expiration date of their paperwork. This is the great "crime" that anti-immigrant activists insist all undocumented immigrants have committed, asserting that folks should instead "get in line."

But the line is broken. Decades ago, it simply was easier for aspiring Americans to get green cards or visas for family members: The United States let more people in and made it easier for immigrants already here to bring along their families. Today, those "lines" are longer and harder to get into. And yet the economic need for immigrants, not to mention America's cultural imperative for inclusion and diversity, is unyielding. Our policies have simply not kept up.

The second argument against stopping deportations is a tactical one, made especially by the White House in arguing that it needs to show toughness in immigration enforcement to increase its hand in pushing for comprehensive reform. But the fact is that even though President Obama's administration has deported more immigrants than any president before him, many Republicans still argue it isn't enough and backed off on their recent support of immigration reform, claiming they couldn't trust President Obama to implement any law if passed.

If a record rate of deportation against undocumented immigrants with only the most minor of offenses has been insufficient to bring Republicans to the bargaining table, perhaps now the White House will finally realize that its self-destructive capitulation won't yield rational behavior on the part of Republicans.

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Today's Republicans seem perpetually willing to alienate increasingly vital Latino voters — and even big business interests who favor immigration reform—in favor of continuing to placate their loyal, but dying, old, white and socially narrow-minded voting base. The final argument against stopping deportations is that President Obama doesn't have the legal authority to do so. He does.

Everyone from top constitutional lawers to The New York Times editorial board agree the President is well within his authority to determine how immigration enforcement resources are prioritized and deployed. And President Obama has already used his executive authority to grant temporary deportation relief to undocumented immigrants brought to America by their parents when they were young, so-called DREAMers who grew up in the United States and yet legally can't find a place in the only nation they've ever called home.

What President Obama did for DREAMers is wonderful; now many of these kids can get in-state tuition or federal loans for college and go on to get good jobs as teachers and engineers our nation needs. But to only use his authority to grant relief for these most-sympathetic of immigrants would reflect the sort of political risk aversion that has so often typified our 44th president.

The White House indeed has said it is using its executive discretion to only deport those immigrants with dangerous criminal records. As The New York Times reported, this is simply not true. Of the nearly 2 million immigrants the Obama administration has deported — a milestone we're expected to hit any day— at least 1.6 million of those deported were for minor offenses like traffic violations.

In other words, overwhelmingly, we're not kicking violent offenders out of the country but moms and dads and hardworking aspiring Americans who got parking tickets and now are being ripped away from their families. The White House could legitimately and wisely reprioritize those law enforcement resources to investigate unsolved murders or sexual assaults or prevent terrorism or mass shootings.

The arguments against stopping deportations are weak at best and getting weaker every day. We need comprehensive immigration reform in the United States to finally fix our broken immigration system and create a path to citizenship for undocumented Americans. But until Republicans are willing to do the right thing by immigrants, our economy and our nation's values, President Obama can and must stop the excessive deportations under his watch. Not one more.

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