Update: U.S. Senate has passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and it has been sent to President Barack Obama. He is scheduled to sign the bill into law on Jan. 29, 2009.
In one of its first major employment law actions of the year, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that will significantly ease the time limits for employees to file wage discrimination claims.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (H.R. 11) passed the House January 9 with a vote of 247-171. The Act amends Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) to declare that an unlawful employment practice occurs not only upon adoption of a discriminatory compensation decision or practice but also when the individual becomes subject to the decision or practice, as well as each additional application of that decision or practice. In other words, each time compensation is paid.
While expanding the time limit during which claims are filed, the Act also permits aggrieved employees to recover back pay for up to two years before the claim filing date.
The Act came as a direct response to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Lilly Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. In that decision, Ledbetter, a longtime employee of Goodyear, charged her employer with wage discrimination when she discovered that she had been paid less than a male supervisor at another plant. By the time she learned of the practice, several years had passed, and she had since retired. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that she was no longer entitled to file a claim because she had failed to do so within 180 days of the initial discriminatory wage decision.
Under the Fair Pay Act, claims such as Ledbetter’s would be permitted because a new unlawful employment practice would occur with each paycheck that comes after the initial discriminatory wage decision. Thus, the 180-day statute of limitations would reset with each paycheck or other application of the discriminatory decision or practice.
Though an identical bill passed the House of Representatives in 2008, the Act died after failing to pass the Senate. The new measure is expected to be brought before the Senate next week.
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