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For Immediate Release: Friday, July 20, 2007
Contact: Jenice Robinson or Ranit Schmelzer, 202-588-5180
SENATE BILL WOULD OVERTURN COURT’S DECISION IN LEDBETTER
NWLC Calls On Lawmakers to Quickly Pass the Legislation
(Washington, D.C.) Following is a statement by Jocelyn Samuels, Vice President for Education and Employment at the National Women’s Law Center, regarding the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Introduced in the Senate today, the bipartisan bill would restore protections against wage discrimination eviscerated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
“The Fair Pay Restoration Act is critical for women and for all American workers. The bill overturns the Supreme Court’s harmful decision in Ledbetter and recognizes the realities of pay discrimination in the workplace.
“Nearly two months ago, the Court upset long-standing understandings of the law and severely weakened workers’ rights to hold employers accountable for wage discrimination by ruling that employees only have 180 days after their employers’ original discriminatory pay decisions to file wage discrimination complaints. This ruling short-circuits employees’ ability to ensure protection of their rights, ignores the realities of pay discrimination in the workplace, and creates perverse incentives for employers to hide pay discrimination until it is too late for employees to challenge it. The Fair Pay Restoration Act confirms that each reduced paycheck represents an act of discrimination.
“More than four decades after Congress outlawed wage discrimination based on sex, women continue to be paid, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. This persistent wage gap can be remedied only if women are armed with the tools necessary to challenge sex discrimination against them. We call on lawmakers to quickly pass this important legislation.”
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