Gender-gap measures signed by Obama

Last edited 2:20 p.m., April 9, 2014

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed two executive measures designed to help close the gender gap in pay between men and women.

As part of a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Obama said it was an embarrassment that women on average earn 77 cents for every dollar men take home. However, he made no mention of the fact that a recent study found women in his own White House make 88 cents on the dollar men do, the New York Times reports.

Some critics of pushes for equal pay in the workplace have said statistics can be misleading because they are averages of all men and women in all jobs, rather than apples-to-apples comparisons of men and women in equivalent jobs with equivalent experience.

On Tuesday, Obama signed an executive order that prohibits federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay, as well as an executive memorandum that instructs the Labor Department to gather statistics on wages for men and women from such contractors.

Read more from the New York Times.