On Friday, President Obama added some muscle to his previous executive order aimed at fixing the purported pay gap: He will require companies to submit information to the federal government about employees’ salaries. The information will be supplied on a form that already tallies employees’ ethnic and gender makeups.

According to The New York Times:

The requirement would expand on an executive order Mr. Obama issuednearly two years ago that called for federal contractors to submit salary information for women and men. Ms. Yang said the rules would be completed in September, with the first reports due a year later.

“Bridging the stubborn pay gap between men and women in the work force has proven to be very challenging,” said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, noting that the median wage for women amounts to 79 percent of that for men. “We have seen progress, but it isn’t enough.”

White House officials said that the requirement was intended to bolster the government’s ability to penalize companies that engage in discriminatory pay practices and to encourage businesses to police themselves better and correct such disparities.

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