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Thursday, April 24, 2008

not just our constitution now

but our women - are being stepped upon BY THOSE WE TRUST TO GOVERN THIS COUNTRY with fairness. by those we expect to treat each and every one of us equally. well equally if you have a penis that is

Senate Republicans Block Pay Disparity Measure

By Lori MontgomeryWashington Post Staff Writer

Senate Republicans yesterday blocked legislation to make it easier for women and others alleging discrimination to sue their employers over unequal pay, blasting the measure as an attempt by Democrats to score political points before the fall presidential campaign.
The vote was delayed until 6 p.m. so the Democratic presidential contenders could make it back after a day of campaigning in Indiana.
Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) gave showcase speeches on the Senate floor.
Other Democrats spent much of the day hammering Republicans for opposing the measure, which aims to reverse a Supreme Court ruling from last May. "Politically, it's the dumbest thing they could ever do," said
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Women "are a majority of the vote," he said. "Issues like this will matter in this election." .........

in case you don't know it here's lilly's story

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It turns out that much of the support for the "unequal pay" bill is based on an erroneous understanding about the deadline that applies to pay discrimination claims -- most of which can still be brought for much longer than 180 days after discrimination happens.

In the court ruling that the Senate bill seeks to overturn, the Supreme Court applied the deadline explicitly mandated by the law that the plaintiff chose to sue under -- Title VII -- and it did not bar most pay discrimination suits from being brought after 180 days, since those lawsuits can be brought under OTHER LAWS specifically intended to handle pay discrimination cases, like the Equal Pay Act, which have much longer deadlines.

In Ledbetter v. Goodyear (2007), the Supreme Court enforced the explicit 180-day deadline for bringing discrimination claims under Title VII, ruling that Lilly Ledbetter’s pay discrimination suit under Title VII was untimely because she brought it long after 180 days had elapsed.

But the Supreme Court specifically noted in a footnote that the plaintiff had (for unknown reasons) dropped her claim under the Equal Pay Act — which has a longer deadline (3 years) for suing.

Court reporters ignored the footnote and the very existence of the Equal Pay Act and thus created the false impression that the Supreme Court’s enforcing the Title VII deadline as written would leave women without any redress for sex-based pay discrimination after 180 days had passed.

It makes sense that the two laws have different deadlines, because one deals with pay discrimination, which often takes a long time to learn about (your co-workers’ pay isn’t usually public knowledge, so it’s hard to know whether your male colleagues are being paid more than you are for the same job), while the other deals primarily with things like hiring and firing, which you learn about immediately.

Unknown said...

wow someone went to law school (or is an hr officer).

in all seriousness, thank you for the additional information. i'll certainly read up on this a bit more. i got my initial information from the nwlc.

why would i believe them you ask? well perhaps because i've been where lilly was (discrimination wise that is)

again, i do thank you and i really will look into this some more

Unknown said...

hmmmmmmm, i did a little reading on your organization, the competitive enterprise institute "anonymous" (you didn't mask your ip address you silly goose) and here's a bit of what is said about that 'institution': 'It postures as an advocate of "sound science" in the development of public policy. However, CEI projects dispute the overwhelimng scientific evidence that human induced greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change' and this as well 'CEI belongs to various conservative alliances, including the Alliance for America, Get Government Off Our Backs, Townhall.com, the National Consumer Coalition (a pro-corporate front group headed by Frances B. Smith, the wife of CEI founder Fred Smith), and the Environmental Education Working Group (EEWG), a national umbrella group for organizations working to undermine environmental education in schools'........... and it does go on (and on)