Fighting For Fair Pay | Need for anti-discrimination action surprises some
As one of his first moves after taking office, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, making it easier for women to sue if they are the victims of pay discrimination.
To some business leaders, the new law is the sort of measure that shouldn’t be necessary in the 21st Century. But the sad fact is that it probably still is.
The law reversed a 2007 Supreme Court decision in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Ledbetter had worked for the company for 19 years and was nearing retirement when she found she was making much less than her male counterparts. But the Supreme Court ruled that because she hadn’t sued within 180 days of receiving the first discriminatory paycheck — nearly two decades before she discovered the pay disparity — she couldn’t receive an award.
New Rules
Under the new law, rules for filing discrimination suits revert to where they stood before the decision. A worker can sue within 180 days of receiving the most recent discriminatory pay check, not the first. Then, according to Joseph T. Bartulis Jr., the head of the Worcester-based law firm of Fletcher Tilton & Whipple’s labor and employment law practice area, victimized employees can typically seek the money they should have been paid going back two years.
Susan Gately, executive director of the Education Foundation at the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, said she’s surprised how serious barriers to women in business remain. The chamber recently started a women’s network at the request of some members.
“To tell you the truth, my thought about it was I can’t even quite imagine that that is still a desire,” Gately said. “I’ve sort of been there and done that and … I kind of expected that you don’t have to do that anymore.”
But Gately said the strong response surprised her. Although the chamber did little to publicize it, the network’s first event drew 26 women, including several in their 20s and 30s, and participants stayed an hour after the official finish to talk.
“It definitely changes my approach to this,” Gately said.
She said the response, along with recent cases of discrimination at companies including Wal-Mart, suggests that some companies still systematically treat women differently from men.
Still, not everyone sees the Ledbetter Act as a good solution. David Felper, chairman of the labor and employment practice group at Worcester-based Bowditch & Dewey LLP, said the law could allow employees to wait to file claims, accumulating larger potential awards. And, he said, it makes it harder for employers to defend against suits because they may have to provide evidence about compensation decisions that were made many years ago.
Bartiulis agreed that the law creates an extra hurdle for companies to jump in defending against discrimination claims, but he said it could also encourage companies to correct compensation mistakes. Under the Supreme Court precedent, he said, companies could make unfair decisions with impunity as long as they could keep wage disparities quiet for six months.
To Gately, the decision is also a victory for her daughters, now in the workforce, who didn’t understand her involvement in women’s rights issues when they were young. “They didn’t see the need,” she said. “But they do now.”
Got news for our Labor Pool column? E-mail Livia Gershon at lgershon@wbjournal.com.
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