Obama: Equal pay 'a family issue'

WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday "equal pay for equal work isn't just a women's issue. It's a family issue."

In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president called attention to Women's History Month, observed each March. He singled out former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt as an "inspiring American who comes to mind" as a major figure in progress for women, noting that in 1961, at her urging, President John Kennedy appointed a commission to study the status of women.

Obama said the federal government has taken few similar steps since then.

"That's why, last week, here at the White House, we released a new comprehensive report on the status of women in the spirit on the one that was released half a century ago," he said.

The president said the report provided "a lot of positive news about the strides we've made," noting that women "have caught up with men in seeking higher education."

However, he said women "are still more likely to live in poverty" and remain "vastly outnumbered by men in "areas like math and engineering."

"This is especially troubling, for we know that to compete with nations around the world, these are the fields in which we need to harness the talents of all our people," he said.

He noted that women earn on average 75 percent of what men earn, calling that "a huge discrepancy."

"And at a time when folks across this country are struggling to make ends meet -- and many families are just trying to get by on one paycheck after a job loss -- it's a reminder that achieving equal pay for equal work isn't just a women's issue. It's a family issue."

Obama said he would "keep up the fight" to enact the Paycheck Fairness Act "to give women more power to stop pay disparities."