But, Graves added, Obama’s order, which affects only federal contractors and does nothing to protect female employees in the private sector, “doesn’t complete the job.” 
 
 “What we really need is for Congress to pass the Fair Paycheck Act which would get at all workers,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a better figure,” said Betsey Stevenson, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, who also spoke to reporters on the conference call with Jarrett. “What we do know is there are more things we can do to close that gap.” 
 
 Fatima Goss Graves, vice president for education and employment at the National Women’s Law Center, said in an interview that the new requirements could spur companies to take voluntary measures to equalize salaries. View Graphic Women in the United States earn about 81 cents for every dollar that a man earns. “One of the problems in the law is pay discrimination goes undetected,” she said, “This is going to put employers in a place where they’re going to take the right steps, and look for pay disparities and correct them immediately.” 
 
 One of the reasons women continue to earn less than men on average is that they work in lower-paying fields, Goss Graves said.
– On National Equal Pay Day, President Obama is taking action to fight the gender wage gap among federal contractors. Today, he signed an executive order requiring the companies to publish their wage data by gender and race, thus pushing them to adhere to laws on equal pay, al Jazeera America reports."Penalizing pay secrecy is an important step that sends a strong message," says a VP for the National Women's Law Center. The move doesn't apply to private companies, though a Senate vote today could help change that. But the bill in question has twice failed to get through Congress, al Jazeera notes. Meanwhile, a second executive order today bars federal contractors from retaliating against workers who exchange information on their salaries, the Washington Post notes. "Pay inequity is a real and persistent problem that continues to shortchange women, their families, and our economy as a whole," says Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.