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Statement

EEOC Is Abdicating Its Responsibility to Stop Discrimination in the Workplace By No Longer Collecting Wage Data, Moms Leader Says

September 12, 2019
Equal Pay

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising, an online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the news that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will no longer collect data that could shed light on the gender- and race-based wage gap:

“It is absolutely disgraceful that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will no longer require large companies to report employee wages broken down by gender and race. Gathering this data is essential to understanding and closing the gender- and race-based wage gap that is harming women – and especially women of color, moms, and moms of color – and punishing families in this country.

“The wage gap is a stain on our nation’s commitment to fairness, a root cause of poverty, and a problem we urgently need to understand and address.

"Especially on the heels of the Census Bureau data released earlier this week, which showed no real progress in closing the wage gap, the EEOC should be trying to learn more about its causes and consequences. The EEOC’s announcement yesterday is an abdication of its core responsibility and a disturbing indication that the Trump administration sanctions discrimination in the workplace. The country will suffer as a result.”

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.