Last year the Supreme Court stripped people of their ability to fight pay discrimination. The Fair Pay Restoration Act will reverse this decision.

The Fair Pay Restoration Act

Senator Kennedy introduced the Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2007 to guarantee equal pay for equal work. The legislation clarifies the congressional intent of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The new bill expressly states that the statute of limitations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 runs from the date of each payment of a discriminatory wage. The bill has recently passed through the House, and now we just need it to get through the Senate. Both of New York's Senators have already signed on in formal support of this bill.

Please take a moment to send a thank-you to Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. A recent vote to get the bill onto the floor of the Senate failed by only THREE votes. Find out how the Senate voted.

The Case of Ledbetter

In the case, Lily Ledbetter, a supervisor and later an area manager at a Goodyear plant initially made a salary comparable to her male colleagues in similar positions. However, after an extensive period of time, and certainly more than 180 days, Ledbetter was denied raises and her pay failed to commensurate with her male co-workers. After nearly 20 years, Ledbetter was the one and only female area manager and was paid almost 40% less than her male counterparts. Holding to the 180 day specified filing period, the Supreme Court did not allow Ledbetter to recover for her sex discrimination claim, even though she received pay check after pay check with wages widely disparate from her male co-workers.

We agree with Justice Ginsburg's dissenting opinion that "The Court's insistence on immediate contest overlooks common characteristics of pay discrimination." Justice Ginsburg cites that pay disparities are different from other discriminatory practices such as failure to promote, refusal to hire and termination since comparative salary information is often not disclosed by the employer to the other employees and small incremental pay changes may only lead the employee to suspect discrimination over a period of time, long after the 180 day limit.

In the lower court, Ledbetter was awarded three million dollars in damages, but the trial judge cut that amount to only $360,000 because of a limitation that was inserted in the Civil Rights Act of 1991, during the first Bush administration, which put a cap on damages for sex discrimination, regardless of the facts. The Supreme Court, then overruled the ruling altogether.

Abandoning Precedent

The opinion effectively overturns 20 years of federal court cases and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rulings which had consistently ruled that a prohibited act of discrimination occurs each time a woman receives a paycheck that is less than a similarly situated man and not from the last date the employer makes a pay-setting decision.

In fact, the EEOC had actively supported Ledbetter. However, after the case was scheduled before the Supreme Court, the Bush Administration distanced themselves from the EEOC's position and filed a brief supporting the employer and encouraging the Supreme Court's decision limiting women's rights.

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