The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 changed the scope of claims for pay discrimination, stating that each additional paycheck issued under a discriminatory pay decision constitutes a new act of discrimination, which then resets the clock on the limited time during which employees may file suit. In a unanimous decision issued Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court has applied a similar theory to discrimination claims filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In Lewis v. City of Chicago, a group of black firefighters filed race discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that the way the city used a written application test unfairly eliminated a significant number of black applicants. The city argued that the charges were filed outside the statute of limitations because they were filed more than 300 days after the initial announcement of the examination results.
In the Supreme Court decision, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the city reset the statute of limitations at each application of the discriminatory practice — specifically, each time it used the test results to make a hiring decision. Scalia noted that under the city’s interpretation of the law, “if an employer adopts an unlawful practice and no timely charge is brought, [the employer] can continue using the practice indefinitely, with impunity, despite ongoing disparate impact.”
As a result, employers may now face liability if discriminatory practices that were adopted years in the past are applied in current hiring decisions. The text of the opinion is available at www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-974.pdf.
For more on Title VII and employee discrimination, consult the HR Guide to Employment Law: A Practical Compliance Reference, in which expert employment law attorney A. Jonathan Trafimow explains disparate treatment, protected classes, and more in clear, concise language.