Since this has already passed the House, it’s now passed; it only needs to get signed by Obama.
The legislation overrides a May 2007 Supreme Court ruling that Ledbetter, a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company employee in Gadsden, Ala., couldn’t sue her employer for pay discrimination because she didn’t file suit within 180 days of the alleged discriminatory act. […]
As the day wore on, Ledbetter stood outside the chamber, explaining the bill’s importance. “I will never see a cent from my case,” she said, “but if this bill passes, I’ll have an even richer reward because I’ll known that my daughters and granddaughters, and your daughters and granddaughters will get a better deal.”
Kevin Drum points out that this was very nearly a party line vote: “All 56 voting Democrats supported the bill, and five Republicans joined in. Which ones? Arlen Specter plus all four of the women in the GOP caucus. Imagine that.”
While Republicans have opposed the bill on a vareity of grounds. One worry is about frivilous lawsuits. I would suggest that companies that have been paying equal pay for equal work have nothing to worry about. For others, perhaps you should have been providing pay equity in the first place…. I’ve always wondered, would employers like that pay their own wife less? Their own mother? Their daughters?
Actually, from the article, it has one more step before the President can sign it:
There may be some Republican grumbling and delaying but this should get voted on next week.
Seems fair to me, I must say. If you wanted to put a limit of 180 days for filing from the date that the discrepancy became known, fine, but a limit of 180 days from the start of the offense when you had no way of knowing that the discrepancy seems wrong to me. Corporations do their level best to keep employees from sharing salary data. It’s one thing if I’m getting a few percent more than the guy next to me because I’m better at running and interpreting packet captures than he is, but if there’s two entire groups are being paid differently based solely on sex then something’s wrong and being able to keep that a secret shouldn’t benefit the corporation’s legal position.
I have to say I have significant problems with anyone who thinks that that word applies to a fair-pay lawsuit. Including the remainder of Republicans, all of whom are 1) not of the sex generally paid less and 2) possessed of a job with a publicly-known and mandated equal-across-the-board salary.
It’s so easy to call someone’s complaint about unfair treatment “frivolous” when you have a pretty good guarantee it’ll never be your problem, huh?