Join the former Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs under President Obama Patricia Shiu and the German investigative journalist Birte Meier for a dialogue on equal pay efforts in the United States and Europe. Coinciding with the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, 1014 and the American Council on Germany present this event that elaborates on the current situation of gender equality from a transatlantic perspective. What are the ways forward to close the gender pay gap? What are the best practices and where have policymakers recently failed? Why has it been so hard to put regulatory policies into place which would help to close the gap?

Moderated by Steven Sokol, President of the American Council on Germany (ACG). Presented in cooperation with the ACG and the Thomas Mann House.

Patricia Shiu is a consultant on diversity and inclusion policies that reflect an organization’s mission, culture, and brand. Appointed by President Barack Obama, Ms. Shiu served as the Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the Department of Labor (DOL) in Washington, DC from 2009-2016. OFCCP enforces laws that prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and veteran status. OFCCP regulates the federal contractor community that employs approximately 20% of the American workforce.

While at DOL, Ms. Shiu and her team updated OFCCP regulations prohibiting discrimination and requiring affirmative action on the basis of sex, disability and veteran status. They also finalized new regulations, adding sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories, and prohibiting discrimination against applicants and employees who inquire about, discuss or disclose their or another employee’s compensation.

Birte Meier, born in 1971, studied at the FU Berlin, the University of Chicago and the University of the Arts Berlin and holds a master's degree in North American Studies, Modern History, and Journalism. Since 2007, she has been a Frontal21 editor, producing investigative stories on politics and business - primarily on digitalization, globalization and the transformation of the market economy and democracy.

During her current fellowship at Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles, Birte Meier researches and publishes on Equal Pay: In California, there has been a cultural change in the matter of Equal Pay. Women are beginning to successfully demand equal pay for equal work. How did California do that? What can Germany learn from California so that women are empowered to effectively demand their constitutional right to equal pay?