With our REDUCE Act, we will hold universities accountable for investing back into education for students and not for luxury facilities being built at colleges and universities across the nation.–Rep. Tom Reed

Wage discrimination is not a rare or isolated practice. It affects millions of women and minorities in the workplace at all levels. I’m asking OMB Director Mick Mulvaney AGAIN why he won’t even allow for the collection of basic data on this persistent problem.–Rep. Michael Capuano

Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) writes:

I have been pushing the Trump Administration to explain why they won’t require companies to collect wage data which would help illuminate the pay gap that exists for women and minorities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set to start collecting this information from businesses as part of paperwork they had been filling out since the 1960s. When the current administration took over, the requirement was waved away. Wage discrimination impacts millions of women and minorities in the workplace at every level. This has negative consequences for the employee as well as their families. It’s also an economic issue. In 2016 the Council of Economic Advisors estimated that the United States economy is $2 trillion larger today because more women have entered the workforce and are working more hours. I wrote Office of Management and Budget Director (OMB) Mick Mulvaney about this issue, in follow up to his testimony before the Financial Services Committee. His answers were unsatisfactory, with no valid reason given for failure to collect this basic information. In the letter, which several of my colleagues also signed, we ask Mulvaney to explain why wage data collection is too much trouble, if there are plans to revisit the issue and what the Administration is doing to address the wage gap.

The persistent gender wage gap partly explains why women are disproportionately burdened with student loan debt. Tom Reed uses AAUW data to promote his attack on “luxury education,” but ignores AAUW research on pay equity.

https://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/public-policy/aauw-issues/gender-pay-gap/

https://www.aauw.org/research/deeper-in-debt/