According to U.S. officials, there are ways to finally stop pay inequality and close the wage gap among women and minority groups.

The Huffington Post revealed that the White House announced on Saturday that it intends to begin gathering data on the salaries of women and minorities at big American companies to address pay discrimination.

The proposal will have the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Labor Department gather summary pay, which will be further categorized according to race, ethnicity and gender. The information will be collected from employers with at least 100 employees. The individual names and salaries of workers are not required, but only the aggregate numbers.

The proposal is not yet final but will involve several companies in the private sector, and about 63 million employees. Businesses are also given two months to state their comments.

Based on the same report by Huffington Post, the White House stated that there are two reasons for the proposal. First, companies will be compelled to look closer at the salaries of their female and minority employees and compare these with the amount they are paying other workers. Doing an annual review may aid companies determine wage gaps and address these on their own. Second, the information will also aid the EEOC determine pay inequalities in specific industries and enforce civil rights laws in the workplace.

The Boston Globe reported that Jenny Yang, chairwoman of the EEOC, stated that pay discrimination is still a persistent problem, so the new data would be a significant step in addressing the concern. If the agency would file a suit based on their findings, companies will be required to appear in a public record.

The Massachusetts Senate also unanimously passed a bill on Friday, which would narrow the gender wage gap by guaranteeing equal pay for comparable tasks, requiring fairness in the method of hiring and setting up pay transparency.

The White House introduced the proposal while celebrating the seventh anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was signed by President Barack Obama to give employees more time to file claims against their employers for pay discrimination. The proposal will expand President Barack Obama’s 2014 executive order, which required all federal contractors to provide similar data.

A recent report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers stated that the average American woman working full time still earns 21 percent less, compared to the average American man.