East Room

11:58 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. (Applause.) All right. Well, thanks to my friend, Lilly Ledbetter, not only for that introduction but for fighting for a simple principle: Equal pay for equal work. It's not that complicated. And, Lilly, I assure you, you remain the face of fair pay. (Laughter.) People don't want my mug on there. (Laughter.) They want your face.

As Lilly mentioned, she did not set out to be a trailblazer. She was just somebody who was waking up every day, going to work, doing her job the best that she could. And then one day, she finds out, after years, that she earned less than her male colleagues for doing the same job. I want to make that point again. (Laughter.) Doing the same job. Sometimes when you -- when we discuss this issue of fair pay, equal pay for equal work, and the pay gap between men and women, youll hear all sorts of excuses about, well, theyre child-bearing, and theyre choosing to do this, and theyre this and theyre that and the other. She was doing the same job -- probably doing better. (Laughter and applause.) Same job. Working just as hard, probably putting in more hours. But she was getting systematically paid less.

And so she set out to make sure this country lived up to its founding, the idea that all of us are created equal. And when the courts didnt answer her call, Congress did.

The first time Lilly and I stood together in this room was my tenth day in office, and that's when we signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. (Applause.) First bill I signed into law. And some of the leaders who helped make that happen are here today, including Leader Pelosi and Senator Mikulski and Congresswoman DeLauro. (Applause.) I want to thank all the members of Congress and all the state legislators who are here and all the advocates who are here, because you all contributed to that effort. And I want to give a special thanks to the members of the National Equal Pay Task Force, whove done outstanding work to make workplaces across America more fair. Were here because today is Equal Pay Day. (Applause.) Equal Pay Day. And it's nice to have a day, but it's even better to have equal pay. (Applause.) And our job is not finished yet. Equal Pay Day means that a woman has to work about this far into 2014 to earn what a man earned in 2013. Think about that. A woman has got to work about three more months in order to get what a man got because shes paid less. That's not fair. Thats like adding an extra six miles to a marathon. (Laughter.) Its not right.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Aint right.

THE PRESIDENT: Aint right. (Laughter.) It's not right and it aint right. (Laughter.)

America should be a level playing field, a fair race for everybody -- a place where anybody whos willing to work hard has a chance to get ahead. And restoring that opportunity for every American -- men and women -- has to be a driving focus for our country.

Now, the good news is today our economy is growing; businesses have created almost 9 million new jobs over the past four years. More than 7 million Americans have signed up for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. (Applause.) Thats a good thing, too. I know its Equal Pay Day and not Obamacare Day -- (laughter) -- but I do want to point out that the Affordable Care Act guarantees free preventive care, like mammograms and contraceptive care, for tens of millions of women, and ends the days when you could be charged more just for being a woman when it comes to your health insurance. (Applause.) And thats true for everybody. (Applause.) Thats just one more place where things were not fair.

Well talk about drycleaners next, right -- (laughter) -- because I know that -- I dont know why it costs more for Michelles blouse than my shirt. (Laughter.)

But weve got to make sure that America works for everybody. Anybody who is willing to work hard, they should be able to get ahead. And weve got to build an economy that works for everybody, not just those at the top. Restoring opportunity for all has to be our priority. Thats what America is about. It doesnt matter where you started off, what you look like -- you work hard, you take responsibility, you make the effort, you should be able to get ahead.

And weve got to fight for an opportunity agenda, which means more good jobs that pay good wages, and training Americans to make sure that they can fill those jobs, and guaranteeing every child a world-class education, and making sure the economy rewards hard work for every single American.

And part of that is fighting for fair pay for women -- because when women succeed, America succeeds. (Applause.) When women succeed, America succeeds. Its true. I believe that. (Applause.) Its true. Its true. It's true.

Now, heres the challenge: Today, the average full-time working woman earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns; for African American women, Latinas, its even less. And in 2014, thats an embarrassment. It is wrong. And this is not just an issue of fairness. Its also a family issue and an economic issue, because women make up about half of our workforce and theyre increasingly the breadwinners for a whole lot of families out there. So when they make less money, it means less money for gas, less money for groceries, less money for child care, less money for college tuition, less money is going into retirement savings.

And its all bad for business, because our economy depends on customers out there, and when customers have less money, when hardworking women dont have the resources, thats a problem. When businesses lose terrific women talent because theyre fed up with unfair policies, thats bad for business. They lose out on the contributions that those women could be making. When any of our citizens cant fulfill their potential for reasons that have nothing to do with their talent or their character or their work ethic, were not living up to our founding values. We dont have second-class citizens in this country -- and certainly not in the workplace.

So, tomorrow, the Senate has the chance to start making this right by passing a bill that Lilly already alluded to -- the Paycheck Fairness Act. (Applause.) Theyve got a chance to do the right thing. And it would put sensible rules into place, like making sure employees who discuss their salaries dont face retaliation by their employers.

And heres why this is important. There are women here today who worked in offices where it was against the rules for employees to discuss salaries with one another. And because of that, they didnt know they were being paid less than men -- just like Lilly didnt know -- for doing the exact same work. For some, it was years before they found out. And even then, it only happened because a manager accidentally let it slip or, as in Lillys case, a sympathetic co-worker quietly passed a note. She only found out she earned less than her male colleagues for doing the same work because somebody left an anonymous note.

We cant leave that to chance. And over the course of Lillys career, she lost more than $200,000 in salary, even more in pension and Social Security benefits -- both of which are pegged to salary -- simply because she was a woman.

And Lilly, and some of the other women here, decided it was wrong, set out to fix it. They went to their bosses; they asked for a raise. That didnt work. They turned to the law; they filed suit. And for some, for years after waiting and persisting they finally got some justice. Well, tomorrow, the Senate could pay tribute to their courage by voting yes for paycheck fairness. (Applause.) This should not be a hard proposition. This should not be that complicated. (Applause.) And so far, Republicans in Congress have been gumming up the works. Theyve been blocking progress on this issue, and of course other issues that would help with the economic recovery and help us grow faster. But we dont have to accept that. America, you dont have to sit still. You can make sure that youre putting some pressure on members of Congress about this issue. And I dont care whether youre a Democrat or a Republican. If youre a voter -- if youve got a daughter, you got a sister, you got a mom -- I know you got a mom -- (laughter) -- this is something you should care about. And Im not going to stand still either. So in this year of action Ive used my executive authority whenever I could to create opportunity for more Americans. And today, Im going to take action -- executive action -- to make it easier for working women to earn fair pay. So first, Im going to sign an executive order to create more pay transparency by prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with each other. (Applause.) Pay secrecy fosters discrimination and we should not tolerate it -- not in federal contracting or anywhere else.

Second, Im signing a presidential memorandum directing the Department of Labor and our outstanding Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez, to require federal contractors to provide data about their employee compensation so pay discrimination can be spotted more easily.

Now, I want to be clear: There are great employers out there who do the right thing. There are plenty of employers out there who are absolutely certain that theres no pay discrimination happening in their offices. But then sometimes when the data is laid out, it paints a different picture. Many times they then do everything they can to fix the problem, and so we want to encourage them to fix these problems if they exist by making sure that the data is out there.

So everybody who cares about this should pay attention to how the Senate votes tomorrow on this paycheck fairness act, because the majority of senators support this bill, but two years ago, a minority of Senate Republicans blocked it from getting a vote. Even worse, some commentators are out there saying that the pay gap doesnt even exist. They say its a myth. But its not a myth; its math. (Laughter and applause.) You can look at the paychecks. You can look at the stubs. (Applause.)

I mean, Lilly Ledbetter didnt just make this up. (Laughter.) The court, when it looked at the documents, said, yep, youve been getting paid less for doing the same job. Its just the court then said, you know, its been -- as Lilly said -- its been happening so long, you cant do anything about it anymore -- which made no sense and thats why we had to sign another bill. Its basic math that adds up to real money. It makes a real difference for a lot of Americans who are working hard to support their families.

And of course, the fact that weve got some resistance from some folks on this issue up on Capitol Hill just fits with this larger problem, this vision that the congressional Republicans seem to be continually embracing -- this notion that, you know what, youre just on your own, no matter how unfair things are. You see it in their budget. The budget the Republicans in Congress just put forward last week, its like a bad rerun. It would give massive tax cuts to households making more than a million dollars a year, force deep cuts to things that actually help working families like early education and college grants and job training.

And, of course, it includes that novel idea of repealing the Affordable Care Act. (Laughter.) Fiftieth time theyve tried that -- which would mean the more than 7 million Americans whove done the responsible thing and signed up to buy health insurance, theyd lose their health insurance; and the 3 million young adults whove stayed on their parents plan, theyd no longer have that available; take us back to the days when insurers could charge women more just for being a woman.

On minimum wage, three out of four Americans support raising the minimum wage. Usually when three out of four Americans support something, members of Congress are right there. (Laughter.) And yet here, Republicans in Congress are dead set against it, blocking a pay raise for tens of millions of Americans -- a majority of them women. This isnt just about treating women fairly. This is about Republicans seemingly opposing any efforts to even the playing field for working families.

And I was up in Michigan last week and I just asked -- I dont understand fully the theory behind this. I dont know why you would resist the idea that women should be paid the same as men, and then deny that thats not always happening out there. If Republicans in Congress want to prove me wrong, if they want to show that they, in fact, do care about women being paid the same as men, then show me. They can start tomorrow. They can join us in this, the 21st century, and vote yes on the Paycheck Fairness Act. (Applause.) Vote yes.

And if anybody is watching or listening, if you care about this issue, then let your senators know where you stand -- because America deserves equal pay for equal work.

This is not something were going to achieve in a day. Theres going to be a lot of stuff that weve got to do to close the pay gap. We got to make it possible for more women to enter high-paying fields that up until now have been dominated by men, like engineering and computer science. Women hold less than 6 percent of our countrys commercial patents -- thats not good enough. We need more parents and high school teachers and college professors encouraging girls and women to study math and science. We need more businesses to make gender diversity a priority when they hire and when they promote. Fewer than five percent of Fortune 500 companies have women at the helm.

I think wed all agree that we need more women in Congress. (Applause.) Fewer than 20 percent of congressional seats are held by women. Clearly, Congress would get more done if the ratio was -- (laughter) -- evened out a little bit. So weve got to work on that.

And weve all got to do more to make our workplaces more welcoming to women. Because the numbers show that even when men and women are in the same profession and have the same education, theres still a wage gap, and it widens over time. So were going to keep making the case for why these policies are the right ones for working families and businesses. And this is all going to lead up to this first-ever White House Summit on Working Families on June 23rd.

So, ultimately, equal pay is not just an economic issue for millions of Americans and their families. Its also about whether were willing to build an economy that works for everybody, and whether were going to do our part to make sure that our daughters have the same chances to pursue their dreams as our sons, and whether or not were willing to restore to the heart of this country that basic idea -- you can make it, no matter who you are, if you try.

And thats personal for me. Ive said this before -- Ive got two daughters and I expect them to be treated just like anybodys sons. And I think about my single mom working hard, going to school, trying to raise two kids all at the same time. And I think about my grandmother trying to work her way up through her career and then hitting the glass ceiling. And Ive seen how hard theyve worked, and Ive seen how theyve sucked it up. And they put up with stuff and they dont say anything, and they just take care of their family and they take care of themselves, and they dont complain a lot. But at a certain point, we have the power to do something about it for the next generation. And this is a good place to start.

So, for everybody out there whos listening, ask your senator where you stand on paycheck fairness. (Applause.) If they tell you that theres not a pay gap out there, you tell them to look at the data, because there is. Its time to get this done. And Im going to do my small part right now by signing this executive order and presidential memoranda. (Applause.)

END 12:18 P.M. EDT