WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Friday that it would require businesses with at least 100 employees to submit detailed pay data by gender, race and ethnicity in an effort to find firms that are "unlawfully shortchanging workers."
A main focus of the new rules, which would take effect Sept. 30, 2017, was to advance efforts to ensure women are paid the same as men for doing the same job, as required by federal law.
The White House said that the median annual wage for a woman working full time was $39,600, 79 percent the median wage for a man.
Although the gap has "narrowed slightly" in the past two years, it is still too wide, the White House said.
"What kind of example does paying women less set for our sons and daughters?" President Obama said at a White House ceremony celebrating the seventh anniversary of his signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
That measure made it easier for workers to challenge what they view as unfair pay.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce called the reporting requirement too burdensome.
But Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said the Obama administration's action was "a big step forward."