“Issuing a ‘review and stay’ of an equal pay initiative aimed at identifying and helping root out pay discrimination is a blatant attack by the Trump administration on fair pay for women and people of color. Last night’s action belies the administration’s claim, made just last weekend, that it supports women’s equality and economic opportunity. The Office of Management and Budget claims it made this decision on technical grounds but, in reality, the agency’s action is a response to baseless opposition from the organized business lobby. This is the latest in a long list of actions that show the administration’s failure to prioritize – and, indeed, to erode – advances for women and families.

This is egregious interference with a years-long effort to identify the fairest, most efficient way to collect pay data from employers without being overly burdensome. The process, led by the Obama administration, included extensive input from the public and resulted in a revised ‘EEO-1’ equal pay data collection form. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would have started receiving confidential compensation data from larger employers through the form starting early next year. Instead, employers will be able to continue ignoring potential discrepancies in pay or hiding unlawful pay practices. Wage disparities across genders, races and ethnicities will persist, and our country will suffer.

At a time when gender- and race-based wage gaps are punishing working people, families and our economy, identifying and addressing pay disparities should be a priority. Yet this administration has chosen to block a common sense effort to help employers evaluate their pay practices and correct problems while hindering the government’s ability to identify pay discrimination. At the same time, the administration has proposed drastically cutting or even eliminating departments and offices focused on workplace protections and nondiscrimination. The mismatch between the actions of the Trump administration and the needs of women and working families is beyond disgraceful.”