Everyone should read what Barack Obama said about the gender pay gap

President Obama announced new rules in a bid to close the gender pay gap in the US.

New requirements will ask companies with more than 100 employees to provide the government with annual data on how much they pay workers based on gender, race and ethnicity.

The play for greater transparency is a step towards eliminating the pay gap, which at its current rate of progress, will not be consigned to history for another 60 years.

In the US women as a whole earn 74 cents for every dollar a man earns, but the figure for black women is just 60 cents, and Latina women, 56.

In the EU, the situation is generally better, but not one member country has achieved gender parity in the workplace.

As he introduced the new measures on Friday Obama said:

What kind of example does paying women less set for our sons and daughters?

The notion that we would somehow be keeping my daughters … any of your daughters out of opportunity, not allowing them to thrive in any field, not allowing them to fully participate in every human endeavour, that's counterproductive.