On Tuesday, Congress passed the final version of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in a 250-177 vote. This comes on the heels of the Senate passing it last week. President Obama signed the bill into law yesterday at the White House. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act corrects the Supreme Court decision that made it impossible for women to sue for wage discrimination after the 180-day statute of limitations which began with the date the pay was agreed upon.
The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which we previously blogged about, is named after Lilly Ledbetter, who worked for Goodyear Tires for 19 years before discovering she was paid less than her male counterparts with the same or less experience. This new act helps not only women, but anyone who finds themselves a victim of wage discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age, or disability.
The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act marks a sign that President Obama and the Democratic Congress are honoring their promises to those suffering from wage discrimination. Feminist Majority President, Eleanor Smeal, sees this
act as a step “to rebuilding women’s rights and civil rights taken away during the Bush era.” And yesterday, in the New York Times, columnist Gail Collins wrote about the Act and the cases of employment discrimination that would have benefited from this legislation.
It is always fascinating to see the various requests to Congress and the things they do. This Congressional session will perhaps be more interesting because of everything included in the stimulus bill and everything else that Congress will have to deal with. I’m curious to see how this particular Congress will handle all of the competing priorities. I’m glad they have already chosen to address this issue. I’m happy that people who experience wage discrimination will have further recourses available to them.
The Democrats are touting their first 100 days as the time when they are going to get a tremendous amount accomplished. I hope they do accomplish something significant in the first 100 days. It seemed like the last Congress didn’t accomplish much in all of 2008. I saw that the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is asking people to give their opinion on the most important thing for Congress to do in their first 100 days. Then they’re going to work to get Congress to accomplish what the public actually wants them to do. If you think they should do even more to address this issue, make sure to add your opinion so Congress can know what our priorities are – http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/email/email4.cfm?id=200