【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 to do theright thing. and it would putsensible rules into place, like making sure employees who discusstheirsalaries donamp。rsquo。t face retaliation by their employers.
　　and hereamp。rsquo。s why this isimportant. there are women here todaywho worked in offices where itwas against the rules for employees to discusssalaries with one another. and becauseof that,they didnamp。rsquo。t know they were being paid less than men just like lillydidnamp。rsquo。t know for doing theexact same work. for some, it was years before they found out. and even then, it onlyhappened because amanager accidentally let it slip or, as in lillyamp。rsquo。s case, a sympatheticcoworkerquietly passed a note. sheonly found out she earned less than her male colleagues for doing thesame workbecause somebody left an anonymous note.
　　we canamp。rsquo。t leave that tochance. and over the course of lillyamp。rsquo。scareer, she lost more than$200,000 in salary, even more in pension and socialsecurity benefits both of which arepegged to salary simply because shewas a woman.
　　and lilly, and some of the otherwomen here, decided it was wrong, set out to fix it. theywent to their bosses。 they asked for araise. that didnamp。rsquo。t work. they turned to the law。 they filedsuit. and for some, for years after waiting andpersisting they finally got some justice.
　　well, tomorrow, the senate couldpay tribute to their courage by voting yes for paycheckfairness. (applause.) this should not be a hard proposition. this should not be thatplicated. (applause.)
　　and so far, republicans incongress have been gumming up the works. theyamp。rsquo。ve beenblocking progress on this issue, and of course other issuesthat would help with the economicrecovery and help us grow faster. but we donamp。rsquo。t have to accept that. america, you donamp。rsquo。t have tosit still. you can make sure that youamp。rsquo。re putting somepressure on members of congress aboutthis issue. and i donamp。rsquo。t care whether youamp。rsquo。re a democrat ora republican. if youamp。rsquo。re a voter ifyouamp。rsquo。ve got a daughter, you got a sister, you got a mom i know you got a mom (laughter) this is something you should care about.
　　and iamp。rsquo。m not going to stand stilleither. so in this year of action iamp。rsquo。veused my executiveauthority whenever i could to create opportunity for moreamericans. and today, iamp。rsquo。m going totakeaction executive action to make it easier for working women to earn fairpay. so first,iamp。rsquo。m going to sign anexecutive order to create more pay transparency by prohibitingfederalcontractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with eachother. (applause.) pay secrecy fosters discrimination and weshould not tolerate it not in federalcontracting or anywhere else.
　　second, iamp。rsquo。m signing apresidential memorandum directing the department of labor and ouroutstandingsecretary of labor, tom perez, to require federal contractors to provide dataabouttheir employee pensation so pay discrimination can be spotted moreeasily.
　　now, i want to be clear: there are great employers out there who dothe right thing. thereare plenty ofemployers out there who are absolutely certain that thereamp。rsquo。s no paydiscriminationhappening in their offices. but then sometimes when the data is laid out, it paints adifferentpicture. many t