Biden signs order to promote pay equality for employees of federal contractors

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President Joe Biden Tuesday signed an executive order to promote efforts to achieve pay equality and pay equity for employees of federal contractors. 

The order encourages the government to consider banning federal contractors from seeking information about job applicants' prior salary history, the Associated Press reported.

Biden was joined by first lady Jill Biden at the East Room of the White House around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday for an event marking National Equal Pay Day and to celebrate Women's History Month. Vice President Kamala Harris chose not to attend because her husband, Douglas Emhoff, contracted COVID-19 recently, Biden said. 

Biden said his administration is expanding access to good-paying jobs and providing lower costs for child care and senior care, so women can get back to work and provide their families with economic security.

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President Joe Biden gives a speech at the East Room of the White House Tuesday for an event on Equal Pay Day and to celebrate Women's History Month (C-SPAN)

 "It's my hope that this sets an example for all private companies," Biden said in his speech at the White House. 

A new directive from the Department of Labor is designed to strengthen federal contractors' obligations to audit payrolls to guard against pay disparities based on gender, race or ethnicity.

Equal Pay Day is designed to highlight how far into a new year a woman must work, on average, to earn what a man did in the previous year.

Biden called to the stage past and present members of the U.S. women's national soccer, which reached a $24 million February settlement with U.S. Soccer in a discrimination dispute. 

First Lady Jill Biden gives a speech at the White House on Tuesday (C-SPAN)

First lady Jill Biden also spoke at the event Tuesday, which she said was filled with women who "blazed trails and shattered glass ceilings."

Jill Biden talked of her mother who provided for her family in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She said she now misses being able to hear her mom's voice letting her know everything was OK.

"We are all here today because someone believed in us," Jill Biden said. 

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Earlier in the day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., commented on new Department of Labor data Tuesday showing the wage gap.

In 2020, women earned 83 cents for every dollar earned by men. The gap is particularly stark for Hispanic women (57 cents) and Black women (64 cents) when comparing their wages to White, non-Hispanic men.

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Jill Biden (C-SPAN)

"These statistics are staggering," Pelosi said at the event. "They're not only staggering, they're heartbreaking."

During the coronavirus pandemic, women lost 11.9 million jobs compared to 10.1 million jobs lost by men from February to April 2020.

Fox News' Marisa Schultz and the Associated Press contributed to this report