Obama Calls For Strategy To Combat Gender Pay Gap

On Friday, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum to federal agency and department heads tasking them with devising a strategy to combat “unfair pay disparities” which “are a detriment to women, families, and our economy.”

Obama added: “The Federal Government is the Nation’s largest employer. It has a special responsibility to act as a model employer.”

Critics, like Independent Women’s Forum Managing Director Carrie L. Lukas, say the claim that women make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men due to gender discrimination is a myth easily debunked when differences such as hours worked daily, motherhood, and choice of occupation are taken into consideration.

“The Department of Labor’s Time Use survey shows that full-time working women spend an average of 8.01 hours per day on the job, compared to 8.75 hours for full-time working men,” wrote Lukas in the Wall Street Journal. “One would expect that someone who works 9% more would also earn more. This one fact alone accounts for more than a third of the wage gap.”

Indeed, some studies have shown that recent female college graduates actually earn more, not less, than males.

Still, in his second Inaugural Address, Obama said it is “our generation’s task” to ensure that women make as much as men.

The Obama White House has come under harsh criticism by former female White House officials who have charged that the Administration is sexist.

Former White House communications director Anita Dunn said “If it weren’t for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace. Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

An analysis by the Washington Free Beacon found that female employees working in the Obama White House earn 18% less than their male counterparts.