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Rep. Capuano Questioning Federeal Reserve Chairman Powell about the wage gap

February 27, 2018

Shocked — that was my first reaction when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell admitted today during a Financial Services Committee hearing he basically has no interest in obtaining data that would shed light on the gender and racial wage gap.

Powell’s remarks came in response to my questions about a new British law requiring companies with over 250 employees to report salary and bonus differences between men and women. Barclays Bank, the first company to publish data, revealed women are paid almost 50% less overall than men. The Obama Administration drafted a similar rule through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to require companies with over 100 employees to report wage data broken down by gender, race and ethnicity. It never went into effect because the Trump Administration decided it would be too much trouble for businesses.

This is an issue that should matter to the Federal Reserve whose job it is to oversee the economy and promote the goal of maximum employment. The Federal Reserve supervises over 7,000 financial institutions including some of the largest in the world. Yet Chairman Powell today dismissed the importance of obtaining this information. It is troubling that Chairman Powell not only is disinterested in the data, he apparently won’t use the tools at his disposal to at least bring more transparency to the issue. Several members of the Financial Services Committee will be joining our effort to follow up on this issue.

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