Supreme Court Decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear
In Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., the Supreme Court ruled that employees cannot challenge ongoing compensation discrimination if the employer's original discriminatory decision occurred more than 180 days before, even when the employee continues to receive paychecks that have been discriminatorily reduced. Prior to this decision, the law, as interpreted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and nine of ten courts of appeals that had considered the issue, treated each discriminatory paycheck as a separate discriminatory act that started a new 180-day clock.
Because pay information is often confidential, it may take a long time for an employee to realize that she is experiencing compensation discrimination. And under this ruling if employers were insulated from liability after 180 days, they had little incentive to correct pay discrimination that occurred. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law on Jan. 29, 2009, reversed this damaging decision and restored protections against pay discrimination. The Act reinstated prior law and makes clear that pay discrimination on the basis of sex, race, national origin, age, religion and disability "accrue whenever an employee receives a discriminatory paycheck, as well as when a discriminatory pay decision or practice is adopted, when a person becomes subject to the decision or practice, or when a person is otherwise affected by the decision or practice.
- The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
- Text of the Ledbetter decision, May 2007
- Justice Ginsberg's dissent to the decision, May 2007
- Amicus Brief in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Women's Community, August 2006
- Fact Sheet on Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., National Women's Law Center, 2007