Ivanka Trump is supporting her father President Donald Trump’s decision to halt former president Barack Obama’s equal pay initiative, which would have required private businesses with more than 100 employees to begin collecting data about how much they pay workers of different genders, races and ethnicities.
The Office of Management and Budget informed the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission earlier this week that companies will no longer be required to start submitting this information, CNN reports. Obama, 56, first implemented the plan in January 2016 in an effort to rectify pay inequality.
The former fashion designer, 35, initially wanted to keep the data collection going, but she later changed her opinion, a White House official told CNN. “Ultimately, while I believe the intention was good and agree that pay transparency is important, the proposed policy would not yield the intended results,” Ivanka said in a statement, per CNN. “We look forward to continuing to work with EEOC, OMB, Congress and all relevant stakeholders on robust policies aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap.”
Opponents of the initiative have argued that it’s burdensome and costly to employers and it doesn’t shed light on the reason behind the pay discrepancies. They also pointed out that it does not comply with the federal Paperwork Reduction Act because of the volume of documents that would need to be submitted.
The Women Who Work author has previously said that her main focus as special assistant to the president is women’s economic issues, such as closing the pay gap, paid family leave, childcare tax credit and more.
According to Women’s Policy Research, women earn 82 percent of the full-time weekly paycheck of a white man, while black women earn 68 percent and Latina women earn 62 percent.