President Obama signed an executive order yesterday that is intended to help even out the gender pay gap. It would require federal contractors to allow employees to share salary information with each other.
It’s kind of a mini-version of a bill being proposed by Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, which would apply to all private employers. That bill is called the Paycheck Fairness Act.
“We want to make sure that through our work passing the Paycheck Fairness Act, we end the soft bigotry of low wages for women," said Senator Mikulski at a press conference last week. "We want equal pay for equal work. We want it in our law books, and we want it in our checkbooks.”
Sheilah Kast talks about the executive order and the bills with Deborah Eisenberg, Law Professor at the University of Maryland, who studies employment law, and testified before Congress on behalf of the Paycheck Fairness Act.
