Senate Will Vote on Ledbetter Bill During Equal Pay Week
Today is Equal Pay Day -- the point in 2008 when the average woman's wages finally catch up with what the average man was paid in 2007.
In conjunction with this week of awareness about the gender wage gap, the Senate is scheduled to vote tomorrow on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: critical legislation that would protect working women's rights to fight for fair pay.
The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act provides a narrowly targeted legislative fix to overturn last year's Supreme Court ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and allow victims of pay discrimination to file a complaint up to 180 days after the last time they are paid unfairly -- not the first as the Court required.
Since the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, most courts have allowed victims of pay discrimination to file a claim up to 180 days after they received their last discriminatory paycheck. This system is called the paycheck accrual method. But in May 2007, the Supreme Court overturned this precedent, ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire that the filing period ends 180 days after the employer's initial decision to discriminate.
The Court's decision ignores the realities of the workplace where pay discrimination often occurs gradually over time and where employees typically lack access to information about how they are paid in comparison to other workers. The decision also provides incentives for employers to conceal rather than correct pay discrimination; once 180 days passes without a complaint, workers are effectively left without recourse.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act overturns the Court's decision and restores the paycheck accrual rule, allowing pay discrimination victims a reasonable time period to vindicate their rights.
