SPEAK OUT: Does the Federal Government Have a Gender Pay Gap?

President Barack Obama issued a presidential memo calling for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to research “whether changes to the main pay system for white-collar employees, the General Schedule, would ‘assist in addressing any gender pay gap,’” according to The Washington Post.  

While the General Schedule dictates the salary ranges for nearly 1.5 million civilian white-collar federal employees, President Obama seeks to take a closer look at the administrative discretion that can be used to affect individual salaries and “other types of compensation” at the times of hiring and employee promotion.

The Post cites a 2009 report from the Government Accountability Office which demonstrates a narrowing of the gender pay gap in the federal workforce - from $0.28 on the dollar in 1988 to $0.11 in 2007 - but “neither confirms nor denies the presence of discriminatory practices.”

Additionally, data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shows that females are underrepresented at senior levels in the government, and overrepresented at lower levels on a percentage basis.

Individual government agencies are required to share their procedures for setting starting salaries and promotion evaluation procedures with the OPM by Aug. 10, 2013, giving OPM three months to review the data and produce an analysis November 10, 2013, six months after Obama issued the memo.

What do you think about a gender pay gap still existing in the federal government in 2013?