The Trump administration has halted a rule that would have required large companies to report to the government what they pay employees by race and gender... prompting outrage from groups who note that women and minorities still aren't receiving equal pay for equal work... Starting [in spring 2018], companies with more than 100 employees and federal contractors with at least 50 would have had to report more detailed salary data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on a form they already annually submit to the agency... In a lettter to the... the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Neomi Rao, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs said the Office of Management and Budget had paused the government's pay data collection process to review it. "OMB is concerned that some aspects of the revised collection of information lack practical utility, are unnecessarily burdensome, and do not adequately address privacy and confidentiality issues," Rao wrote, according to documents obtained by the Post... Ivanka Trump released a statement hours later. "Ultimately, while I believe the intention was good and agree that pay transparency is important, the proposed policy would not yield the intended results," she said. "We look forward to continuing to work with EEOC, OMB, Congress and all relevant stakeholders on robust policies aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap."... Some in the business community strongly opposed the measure, saying it added an unfair burden to a company's workload. Others said the data would not have offered a clear enough picture to right any economic wrongs... Federal law has banned pay discrimination since 1963. Women, though, still earn an average of 79 cents for every dollar paid to men. The gap is larger for black women, who take home 60 cents for every white man's dollar, and Hispanic women, who average out at 55 cents.