Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

July 31, 2007

There were quite a few offensive Supreme Court rulings this year, but one of the more surprising decisions was in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, in which the court ruled 5 to 4 (natch) that workers who face wage discrimination only have 180 days to challenge the initial discrimination in court.

Slate’s Richard Thompson Ford explained the case quite well a couple of months ago.

Pop quiz: Suppose you’ve just discovered your boss has been embezzling from you for years. Since the 1990s, he’s stolen 30 percent of the return on your retirement investments each year. When did your boss actually swindle you? How long do you have to sue? A) He swindled you when he first came up with the scheme — if you didn’t figure it out and sue him then, you’re too late and he can keep your money. B) He swindled you when he shorted you for the first time — if you didn’t find out and sue him then, you’re too late. C) He swindled you from the first year right up until the end, when you found out about it and took the bastard to court. D) Stop bellyaching; you’re lucky to have a job.

Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy embraced A, B, and D. Goodyear Tire intentionally shortchanged Lilly Ledbetter, a female employee, for two decades. The court majority said if Ledbetter wanted to challenge the discrimination, she needed to sue within 180 days of her first unfair paycheck — even though she continued to receive unfair paychecks for 20 years.

Today, the House took up legislation — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — that would put into law a clarification — wage disparity based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability is not a one-time occurrence. Every discriminatory paycheck represents an ongoing violation. Employees would still have 180 days to challenge the discrimination, but from the last check, not the first.

The good news is the House passed the measure — 225 to 199. The roll call is online, but in terms of party, the vote was 223-6 among Dems, and 2-193 among Republicans.

The bad news is, Bush is still president.

Last week, the White House issued a statement of administration policy (.pdf), expressing the president’s intention to veto the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act if it reaches the Oval Office. As Kay Steiger explained:

The statement said such legislation would “serve to impede justice” and “allegations from thirty years ago or more could be resurrected and filed in federal courts.” The basic argument the right is making on this (on the Court and in the White House) is that 180 days is more than enough time for a discrimination filing to take place (even though most states already allow for up to 300 days).

As I’ve written before, it’s rare to obtain knowledge of pay disparities with any certainty in such a short period of time, and often the initial disparity is so small it sometimes takes several years to discover the full effect. As long as Republicans control the White House, though, there seems to be little chance for any real efforts to combat discrimination.

Stay tuned.

Does this mean I can toss my tax returns older than 6 months?

After all, if I cheated the government, they really should be able to notice within 6 months, right?

Dangit, I hate the Republican party. The Democrats are SO lucky their opposition is raw evil.

  • Just Bill @#3, the Republicans don’t hate America, just the American worker 😛

  • If left unto itself, this Administration (and its surrogates on SCOTUS) would gut all the labor rights gained during the New Deal Era. It attacked SS, and lost. Now it won’t lift a pen to help labor when decent working men and women discover they have been jacked by the boss.

    The only solace I’m reaping these days is that though this WH crowd is making life hell here on earth for the rest of us, as the good Christians they are, hell will be waiting for them upon their demise here on earth. -Kevo

  • Williamjacobs #1 –

    I totally agree. And I think the case law was built to support that argument.

    Somehow I don’t think it will stand up in the Kangaroo court. Hand it to Bush, he has single handedly destroyed the rule of law in this country.

  • CB, I don’t see what the big deal is about Bush still being President. I mean, the Republicrats and the Democans are all the same, right? Al Gore and John Kerry would have vetoed this kind of protection for workers just like Bush. No one in the Establishment Parties cares about the workers, just the big Corporate Interests. I get all of my insight on the world from commenters here, and therefore I just know that the only people who would really help make this bill a law are Ralph Nader, Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. So it really doesn’t matter if I vote in a way that mathematically helps Fred Thompson. None of those screwed workers would have any right to be upset with me for voting my conscience. My right to pedantic purity is much more important than the rights of the Lilly Ledbetters of the world to get paid. Getting paid is so establishment. I, on the other hand, am a guardian of democracy itself!

    Signed,

    Lefty Lolblogger

  • It is so wonderful working for corporations, they should be charging us for the honor!!

  • … the vote was 223-6 among Dems, and 2-193 among Republicans.

    I just thought that was worth repeating.

  • Bush and his crony-stuffed SCOTUS may have destroyed the rule of Law—as gridlock puts it—but they cannot stifle massed, decentralized exercises of Free Speech. If three people stood outside each and every Goodyear Service center in the United States fort just one day, with the sole purpose of the demonstration being to hand out flyers explaining what the Wingfoot Gang did to Lily, they could easily cost Goodyear more revenue in one day than Goodyear stole from Lily in twenty years.

    Then—extrapolate the significance of establishing that coast-to-coast activity to an each-and-every-business-day regimen. Extrapolate it again to include all businesses who sell Goodyear tires. Kick it up a further notch by going after the “store-brands” that are actually manufactured inside Goodyear plants.

    Goodyear is but a giant that’s ripe for a fall— and a very hard fall, indeed….

  • Repubs voted along party lines and without conscience. Not about what is right or just, but only about how long you have to discover it and do something about it. Employers can rob you but if you find out about it after 180 days or don’t do something within that time period then you just got screwed. Really encouraging for corporations huh?

  • A friend of mine tells me Social security demands return of an overpayment of disability benefits from 8-10 years ago, filed it 5yrs after the overpayment.. Do the same rules apply? It’s thousands of dollars the way they figure it. Why should he have to pay it or is it just because it’s a government agency and same rules don’t apply. Wow, for a minute I thought there might be some hope for him. He’s already at poverty level and not getting the medical attention he needs because of funding.

  • The plaintiff’s pay was based on job performance reports which were low, How is that ‘discrimination’? This same old sob story about how women make 70% to 50% of what men make is propaganda for idiots (many of whom have bled their heart out on this thread). If you believe that garbage I suggest you start your own corporation and hire only women. If they really do the same work at a savings or 30-50% you margins will be astronomical. Put your money where your blabbering mouth is.

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