New reports Tuesday evening indicated that the Trump administration is planning to end the wage reporting requirements put in place by the Obama administration. The Obama-era reporting rules required businesses with 100 or more employees to report their employee profiles by race, ethnicity, sex, and job category, together with pay information to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Heritage Foundation expert Romina Boccia says that the elimination of these pay reporting rules is “good news for women and minorities.” Boccia argues that businesses wary of potential costly discrimination lawsuits would, as a precautionary measure, respond by adopting more rigid pay structures that would distort the labor market and leave our economy less productive.

Furthermore, Boccia says that these wage reporting rules would “lead to less flexible work arrangements, which are especially important to working parents, and less performance-based pay, like bonuses that encourage and reward excellence.” She added that “differentiated pay is a crucial mechanism for attracting and retaining qualified employees.”

​​​​​