From its early days, pay equity was a central focus of the Obama administration. The very first piece of legislation Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He also created a National Equity Pay Task Force, called on Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act (a bill focused on pay transparency introduced by then-Senator Hillary Clinton) and issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors against employees who discuss compensation. Now that a new administration is in place, many predict that it will roll back some of these laws and initiatives.
Equal pay, however, was one of the few issues that both candidates appeared to agree upon during the campaign. President Trump’s daughter Ivanka focused her Republican National Convention speech on equal pay, noting that “in 2014, women made 83 cents for every dollar made by a man.” Employees’ ability to discuss their own compensation and that of their colleagues, one of the elements of “pay transparency,” is seen as a key component of pay equity and is receiving pressure from many angles and traction at the state level. Employers should be aware, therefore, that for a variety of reasons, pay transparency is here to stay.
