The Senate last night finally passed, by 61-36 margin, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the wage-discrimination bill that counters a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it extremely difficult for women to sue employers for pay discrimination.
Here’s some background: Ledbetter was a Goodyear employee who discovered after decades on the job that even less-experienced male colleagues made more than her. She sued successfully in lower courts, but the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that existing anti-discrimination laws couldn’t help her because she had not filed a complaint within the 180 days of her first (decades prior) discriminatory paycheck. Most courts, as well as the EEOC, previously had determined that each unequal paycheck could serve as basis for complaint.
Republican opponents had said the bill’s passage would result in an onerous burden on the courts and on business. Incidentally, the Senate’s four female Republicans broke party ranks to vote in favor of the Act. One male Republican colleague, Sen. Arlen Specter, joined them.
North Carolina’s senior senator, Richard Burr, did not.
You can check out the vote here. The bill now goes back to the House of Representatives for a final vote.
This article appears in Jan 20-27, 2009.
It’s so wonderful that this legislation passed. I think it is interesting that a few Goppers voted for it. It looks like successful filibusters will be few and far between.