Thursday, January 29, 2009

Fair Pay for My Daughter and Yours

It's been only nine days? Every single day brings a sharp break with where our country was under the administration that ended just nine days ago - and today was no exception. Today, President Obama signed into law the Lillie Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - blocked by Bush and Senate Republicans last session - which nullifies a stunningly bad Supreme Court decision and ensures that fair pay really means fair pay.
Near the end of a 19 year career at Goodyear Tire, Ledbetter learned that she'd been underpaid for her entire tenure there. She sued, but the Supreme Court in 2007 agreed with Goodyear that she'd missed her chance because she didn't sue Gooodyear within 180 days of their decision to underpay her.
The new law - which every male Republican senator except Areln Specter voted against - extends the statute for another 180 days after each discriminatory paycheck, the way the law was prior to the decision. As the President said, this was about justice.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

while i support the overall purpose of ensuring a fair playing field - i fear this could unintentionally push down wages across the board. it will be interesting to see what happens next...