Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted 61-36 to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- without any harmful amendments.
This is good news for pay equality.
The bill is expected to pass in the House this week, and then be signed into law by our new President. Fingers crossed.
If you are unfamiliar with the Ledbetter case, here is the background:
Lilly Ledbetter had worked at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company for 19 years when she discovered she was being paid significantly less than her male counterparts. So she sued. A jury agreed that she had been paid unfairly, and awarded her $223,776 in back pay, and over $3 million in punitive damages.
But then a judge cut that to only $300,000 because of a 1991 law that says that you must take action within 180 days of when the pay discrimination first started, or else you're out of luck. If you don't find out about it until it's been going on for several years -- as was the case with Lilly Ledbetter -- too bad!
Fortunately, that ridiculous loophole may soon close up.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is designed to recind that impractical statute of limitations. The purpose of the bill is officially stated as follows:
To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and to modify the operation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, and for other purposes.In other words, the lower paycheck doesn't have to be recognized within any specific statute of limitations. Each discriminatory paycheck is itself an actionable violation of this law.
And rightly so, since most of us are not mind readers.
Stay tuned for updates.
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