Ed. Note: This was cross-posted from the Department of Labor's Work in Progress blog.
Nearly 50 years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, on average women are still paid less than their male counterparts for doing comparable jobs – that’s called the pay gap. For the average working woman, the pay gap means $150 less in her weekly paycheck, $8,000 less at the end of the year, and $380,000 less over her lifetime. For women of color and women with disabilities, the disparity is even bigger.
Earlier this year, in conjunction with the Equal Pay Task Force, I announced the Equal Pay App Challenge, the latest in a series of steps the Obama Administration has taken to secure a woman’s right to equal pay for equal work. The App challenge invited software developers to use publicly available labor data and other online resources to create applications to educate users about the pay gap and to build tools to promote equal pay.
We had an enthusiastic response to the challenge and thanks to our winning applications, now anyone with a smart phone, tablet or computer can find tips on important salary topics from typical pay ranges, skill level requirements for certain jobs, how to negotiate salaries, and more. I am excited to announce the winners of the Challenge: Aequitas, Close The Wage Gap, the Gender Gap App, and Demand Equal Pay For Women.
Fonte: White House