One Year Today Since the Supreme Court Ruled Pay Discrimination OK

by Mike Hall, May 29, 2008

A year ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court told Lilly Ledbetter “tough luck,” in a 5–4 decision that made it much easier for corporations to get away with pay discrimination.

Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, says since the ruling,

lower courts have relied on that unjust ruling to deny relief to other victims of discrimination [and] President Bush’s effort to make our highest court friendlier to employers that discriminate has prevailed.

After years of working at an Alabama Goodyear tire plant, Ledbetter discovered she was being paid less than the lowest-paid man doing the same work. She gathered enough evidence to file suit and a jury awarded her $3.8 million. But Goodyear appealed to the Supreme Court.

In the court’s ruling, written by Bush-picked Justice Samuel Alito, the court said Ledbetter—and other workers—has no right to sue for remedy in cases of  pay discrimination if they wait more than 180 days after their first paycheck, even if workers don’t discover the pay discrimination until years later.

Since the decision, unions, women’s groups, equal pay advocates and civil rights activists have mobilized to overturn the court’s ruling. But they have been met every step of the way with opposition from the Bush administration and Republican congressional leaders, including Sen. John McCain.

Just weeks after the court ruled against Ledbetter, she told the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee:

According to the Court, if you don’t figure things out right away, the company can treat you like a second-class citizen for the rest of your career. That isn’t right.

In an unusually quick move, the committee approved the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, that in effect would reverse the Supreme Court ruling. Not surprisingly, Bush announced he had a veto ready if the fair pay bill made it to his desk. But on July 31, the full House passed the bill 225-199.

However, last month, with the blessing of both McCain and Bush, a minority of mostly Republican senators filibustered the fair pay bill and blocked a vote on it.

McCain was on the campaign trail and didn’t cast a vote, but he told reporters he opposed the fair pay legislation and said if he had been in Washington, he would have voted for the filibuster.

Some two weeks later at a Michigan town hall meeting, he reiterated his opposition to the anti-pay discrimination bill. A 14-year-old girl asked McCain why he skipped out on voting on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. McCain said he agreed with the minority of senators who filibustered the bill. He claimed it wouldn’t help women.

I don’t believe that this would do anything to help the rights of women.

With last month’s vote just four votes short (56-42) of the 60 votes needed to end debate and vote on the bill, fair pay advocates are seeking a second vote. They are reaching out to senators who voted against the bill the first time to urge them to allow the bill to come to the floor. If one of your senators voted against the bill, click here to send a message. Says Ness:

We call for another Senate vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and ask every Senator to examine his or her conscience and vote “yes” this time. It’s time to restore meaningful protections against discrimination that make real our nation’s fundamental commitment to fairness and equality.

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