Butler Williams & Skilling Blog

President Obama to Sign Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 on January 29, 2009

Following the Senate's approval last week, on January 27th the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.  President Obama is scheduled to sign the Act into law on January 29.  This law will overturn the Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which barred claims for discriminatory pay practices if they were not initiated within 180 days of the first application of the discriminatory practice, rather than recognizing continuing employer liability arising from each discriminatory paycheck.  The Supreme Court's ruling in Ledbetter effectively encouraged bad employers to conceal their discriminatory practices - and to avoid liability for such discrimination if they had successfully hidden them or intimidated employees from challenging the practices when they first began to receive discriminatory pay checks.  The truth is that many employees never learn of such discriminatory pay practices, may only suspect it or are too frightened of retaliation to challenge the pay practice early in employment.  This places responsiblity with the employer, who is under the obligation to pay irrespective of gender, race, age or other protected characteristic.  The Act will amend Title VII to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, providing renewed pay protection to a wide array of persons who have historically suffered pay discrimination. 

The Act is intended to return the law to the 'paycheck accrual rule' which had allowed the statute of limitations to be revived each time a discriminatory paycheck was issued, the rule that was widely recognized by the courts prior to the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber decision.  The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 is retroactive to May 28, 2007, the date before the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber decision, to assure that the wage protections afforded employees are not compromised by application of the rule outlined in the Ledbetter Supreme Court decision. 

The new law states: "For purposes of this section, an unlawful practice occurs, with respect to discrimination in compensation in violation of this title, when a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice is adopted, when an individual becomes subject to a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, or when an individual is affected by application or a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, including each time wages, benefits, or other compensation is paid, resulting in whole or in part from such a decision or other practice." 

This is cause for celebration for all advocates of fair pay, irrespective of one's gender, race, color, religion, national origin, disability or age.  It's about time!  According to the last available census figures, women are paid substantially less than male workers.  For every dollar a male made in 2003, a woman made 75.5 cents.  While Ms. Ledbetter led the charge against such unfair treatment, the Supreme Court's decision means that she will not be able to revive her case or recover for her own wage disparty.  However, many, many people after her can thank her for her efforts to change the law.  Thank you, Lilly Ledbetter, for standing up.  And thank you to all of the hard working Americans who supported the change in the law and called their representatives to return reason to the law controlling workplace wages.