Thursday, January 29, 2009

Lilly Ledbetter

Since Obama was sworn in, nearly every day has been - as a friend of mine remarked recently on her Facebook page - "like a liberal Christmas". Today, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act into law. Lilly Ledbetter filed a lawsuit against her employer, Goodyear, after she discovered she had been paid less than her male counterparts, but her lawsuit was thrown out because it was filed more than six months after the discrimination occurred. The Act makes it clear that the 180 day statue of limitations begins with each new discriminatory paycheck. I think that the 180 day statue of limitations is still too short, but at least it is now clear that it begins on pay day, not on the day the pay was agreed upon.

Of course, all Senate democrats voted for this Act, but it is especially noteworthy that all female republican senators also voted for it, whereas only one male republican voted in favor (Specter).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A travesty Ledbetter can't recoup lost wages.

But a victory, nonetheless. :)

Hmmmm...wonder if this applies to bonuses meted out by CEOs.

Did Merrill Lynch's Jeff Thain, who justified receiving a $10B bonus *after* the Wall Street bailout because he "deserves it for holding Merrill Lynch down to a $11.67M loss" (holy shit this guy's a selfish SOB) distribute bonuses to his "good people" equally, or did his female good person only get $780,000 to his male good person's $1M?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I mean, come one...why not give $4B in bonuses of bailout out money to the people he claims minimized losses? After all, he has to appreciate his "good people."

This reminds me of a joke about lawyers...you know, how we should put them all on an island somewhere, away from civilization, so they can screw themselves and leave us alone. Oh, wait. I'd better be far, far away from the CEO island, though, because those two groups will be turning pennies into copper wires until their hands are bloody.

Happy trails,

Connie :)