Last week, the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau, along with the White House Middle Class Task Force, announced several initiatives to close the gender pay gap, increase workplace flexibility, and improve work/life balance.
The Women’s Bureau plans to release a series of public education materials, including:
- An Equal Pay Checklist
- A revised Equal Pay Employer Self-Audit tool
- An Equal Pay Research Summit
The government’s press release also announced that the Women’s Bureau, along with the White House Council on Women and Girls, will host a series of “National Dialogue on Workplace Flexibility” forums. This effort will support the White House’s Flexibility Forum by hosting a series of forums in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and other locations during 2010 and 2011.
In addition, the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, which was created to crack down on violations of equal pay laws, made five recommendations, outlined in a White House press release below:
- Improve interagency coordination and enforcement efforts to maximize effectiveness of existing authorities.
- Collect data on the private workforce to better understand the scope of the pay gap and target enforcement efforts.
- Undertake a public education campaign to educate employers on their obligations and employees on their rights.
- Implement a strategy to improve the federal government’s role as a model employer.
- Work with Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.