Obama pledges to fight pay discrimination

US President Barack Obama has committed himself to work for legislation which narrows the pay gap between men and women.

US President Barack Obama has committed himself to work for legislation which narrows the pay gap between men and women.

In his weekly address last week, he said one of his first acts as president was to sign a law to allow women to sue their employer for pay discrimination, but addded that he was “disappointed” that Congress failed to pass legislation last year to address the gender pay gap. In the US women earn on average 75 cents to every dollar a man earns. The Paycheck Fairness Act was defeated in the Senate by just two votes.

Obama said he would continue to press for reform. “Achieving equality and opportunity for women isn’t just important to me as president. It’s something I care about deeply as the father of two daughters who wants to see his girls grow up in a world where there are no limits to what they can achieve,” Obama said. “And that’s why I’m going to keep up the fight to pass the reforms in that bill.”

Last week, the White House released the first report in nearly 50 years to focus on the status of women in America. The report shows women are still more likely to live in poverty than men and still have problems rising up the career ladder in fields like engineering.

“This is especially troubling, for we know that to compete with nations around the world, these are the fields in which we need to harness the talents of all our people. That’s how we’ll win the future,” said Obama.

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• Gender equality