Do Something Now: Equal Pay for Women

Pay discrimination is alive and well in the United States. A woman makes an average of 75 cents to a man’s dollar. For most of us, it’s hard to know if we’re experiencing gender discrimination in the workplace because our coworkers’ salaries are usually confidential. Even if you do know that unfair pay is going on, it’s a big risk to bring it out into the open.

The Senate will soon vote on a bill that would make it easier for women to call out unequal pay. The legislation would rectify a 2007 Supreme Court decision that requires a woman to file a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission immediately after her unfair pay is set.  
 
Before this ruling, a woman could file within 6 months of her last discriminatory paycheck. This previous legal precedent acknowledged that pay discrimination is an ongoing practice, not a single event.  
 
But five men on the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel A. Alito, Jr., decided that pay discrimination is a one-time choice, instead of an ongoing rebuke, and that a woman has just six months from the original pay decision to first discover the discrimination and then file her claim.

The Fair Pay Restoration Act, which has already passed in the House of Representatives, would remove this time limit, removing one obstacle between women and fair pay. 
 
The 2007 case - Herstory 
 
Lilly M. Ledbetter was the only supervisor at the Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden Alabama. After twenty years with the company, she discovered that she had consistently been paid less than her male coworkers (including those with less seniority). Although her salary was at first equal to her male colleagues, she received smaller raises over the course of her career and by the time she sued Goodyear in 1998, her salary was 40 percent less than her male colleagues’.  
 
The Supreme Court decided that she took too long to sue (even though she didn’t find out about the pay discrepancy until the end of her career). The majority found that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employees to file a complaint within 180 days “after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred.”  
 
The dissenting opinion, led by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, emphasized the real-life experience of pay discrimination. In addition to the secrecy around salaries, Ginsberg explained that women “trying to succeed in a nontraditional environment” tend to avoid “making waves.”  
 
Ginsberg read her dissent aloud, a rare theatrical event that signifies that the dissenter believes the majority is dead wrong. She explained that the majority misunderstood Congress’ intent with Title VII: "Congress never intended to immunize forever discriminatory pay differentials unchallenged within 180 days of their adoption." She added that the majority view could keep racial and other minorities from gaining similar relief for past discrimination.  
 
The effects 
 
Legal experts agree that the ruling will make it more difficult for women and minorities to sue employers for pay inequity. Establishing a pattern of discrimination over time is no longer a legal option unless victims sue under the Equal Pay Act.  
 
However, the Equal Pay Act is limited to cases where the victim can point to a higher-paid male coworker with the same qualifications and seniority. Title VII allows a woman to sue if she can prove that her employer paid her less because of her gender, even if she has no male counterpart to point to.  
 
In her dissent, Ruth Bader Ginsberg called on Congress to remedy the Court’s mistake.

 
Understanding discrimination 
 
Almost everyone says that he or she disagrees with discrimination, but people don't agree about the extent to which discrimination affects people's lives or about the actions that are necessary to stop discriminatory practices, behaviors, and speech.  
 
By informing and educating ourselves,WomenMatter hopes to help us gain the confidence to recognize and speak out against all forms of discrimination.  
 
For more on this, click here. 
 
What do you think? 
 
Do you support the bill to clarify Title VII and acknowledge pay discrimination as an ongoing injury? If not, what should Congress do to widen the legal options available to women and minorities who experience pay discrimination?  
 
There’s time to tell your Senators what you think!

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