Facts & Figures: Women and Pay Inequality by Karin Kamp: April 8, 2014 APRIL 8Th was Equal Pay Day, chosen as the symbolic date when women's wages catch up to men's from the previous year. Today is also the day that President Obama, lacking support from Congress on equal pay measures, signed an executive order barring federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with one another. He also directed the Labor Department to adopt rules requiring federal contractors to provide compensation data based on sex and race. "Pay secrecy fosters discrimination, and we should not tolerate it, not in federal contracting or anywhere else," Obama said at the signing. He was joined at the White House by Lilly Ledbetter, whose name appears on a pay discrimination law Obama signed in 2009. Some dismiss the gender pay gap as due to women's occupational and lifestyle choices, but data analysis by labor economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn concluded that over 4o percent of the pay gap cannot be explained by such differences. To understand why this really outrages women and enlightened men, have a look at the depth of the problem here. THE PROBLEM There are a number of ways to look at the pay disparities between men and women. This chart from The American Association of University Women (AAUW) shows women's median annual earnings as a percentage of men's over the past 4o years. The pay gap has steadily narrowed over time, but it's progress has stalled in recent years. The Pay Gap Over Time Women's Median Annual Earnings as a Percentage of Men's Median Annual Earnings for Full-time, Year-Round Workers, 1972-2012 liPage of 6 EFTA01104883