Presidential Documents

23595 

Federal Register 

Vol. 77, No. 77 

Friday, April 20, 2012 

Title 3— 

The President 

Proclamation 8800 of April 17, 2012 

National Equal Pay Day, 2012 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

Working women power America’s economy and sustain our middle class. 

For millions of families across our country, women’s wages mean food 

on the table, decent medical care, and timely mortgage payments. Yet, in 

2010—47 years after President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act 

of 1963—women who worked full-time earned only 77 percent of what 

their male counterparts did. The pay gap was even greater for African 

American and Latina women, with African American women earning 64 

cents and Latina women earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a 

Caucasian man. National Equal Pay Day represents the date in the current 

year through which women must work to match what men earned in the 

previous year, reminding us that we must keep striving for an America 

where everyone gets an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. 

At a time when families across our country are struggling to make ends 

meet, ensuring a fair wage for all parents is more important than ever. 

Women are breadwinners in a growing number of families, and women’s 

earnings play an increasingly important role in families’ incomes. For them, 

fair pay is even more than a basic right—it is an economic necessity. 

That is why my Administration is committed to securing equal pay for 

equal work. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill I signed as 

President, empowers women to recover wages lost to discrimination by 

extending the time period in which an employee can file a claim. In 2010, 

I was proud to create the National Equal Pay Task Force to identify and 

combat equal pay violations. The Task Force has helped women recover 

millions in lost wages, built collaborative training programs that educate 

employees about their rights and inform employers of their obligations, 

and facilitated an unprecedented level of inter-agency coordination to improve enforcement of equal pay laws. 

Working women are at the heart of an America built to last. Equal pay 

will strengthen our families, grow our economy, and enable the best ideas 

and boldest innovations to flourish—regardless of the innovator’s gender. 

On National Equal Pay Day, let us resolve to become a Nation that values 

the contributions of our daughters as much as those of our sons, denies 

them no opportunity, and sets no limits on their dreams. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States 

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 

and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 17, 2012, 

as National Equal Pay Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize the 

full value of women’s skills and their significant contributions to the labor 

force, acknowledge the injustice of wage discrimination, and join efforts 

to achieve equal pay. 


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23596 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 77 / Friday, April 20, 2012 / Presidential Documents 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth 

day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the 

Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirtysixth. 

[FR Doc. 2012–9676 

Filed 4–19–12; 8:45 am] 

Billing code 3295–F2–P 


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