On Tuesday, which was Equal Pay Day, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill joined several of her female colleagues in speaking on the Senate floor in favor of legislation that clarifies laws related to pay discrimination. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (H.R. 2831), which is expected to receive a vote later this week, would overturn a 2007 court decision that drastically limited victims’ ability to file claims of pay discrimination based on gender, race, age, religion, disability, or nation of origin.
“We need to unite behind this legislation. This is not going to be onerous for employers out there. It’s fair. It’s fair, and it’s what we pledge allegiance to every day in this room – equal justice for all,” McCaskill said today in the Senate chamber.
Motivated by a 2007 United States Supreme Court decision, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act restores a reasonable time limit in which people can file pay discrimination claims. After nearly twenty years as an employee at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company factory, Lilly Ledbetter filed a pay discrimination claim based on the Eqaul Pay Act of 1963. However, the United States Supreme Court ruled against her claim because she had not filed it within 180 days of the day that Goodyear decided to pay her a discriminatory wage, even though she did not learn of the pay disparity for years.
McCaskill, in her floor speech, contended it is unreasonable to expect people to know how much their colleagues earn relative to their own wages within 180 days of their first paycheck, especially in environments where discussing salaries is taboo, or even forbidden by their employers.
“There is no way women in the workplace can look at their paycheck and immediately determine that they’ve been discriminated against. Do you know why? They don’t know what anybody else is making,” McCaskill said.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would essentially clarify current law and put the nation right back where we were before the Ledbetter case to allow victims to file claims within 180 days of any discriminatory paycheck, giving Americans a realistic opportunity to file any necessary claims of wage bias.
