The incoming Biden administration is looking to boost pay transparency for all U.S. workers through better data collection, a move academics, attorneys, and civil rights groups say is necessary to close workforce racial and gender pay gaps.
Women and workers of color in the private sector are more disadvantaged in pay because they often aren’t privy to the wages of their colleagues like government employees. They fare better in federal agencies because of the government’s more rigid and transparent pay structures, though that rigidity at times can cause problems for women, particularly those who’ve been out of the workforce for long periods of time.