Disparities in wages and salaries remain a pernicious form of employment discrimination. According to the Pew Research Center, the nationwide gender pay gap only improved by 2% from 2002 to 2022. Women, on average, earned $0.80 for every $1 men earned in 2002, and $0.82 per $1 two decades later. These disparities can be much more pronounced when other factors, such as race, are taken into account. Both federal and New Jersey employment laws are working to address the issue, but it remains an issue. Lilly Ledbetter became an unintentional pioneer in this fight when Congress passed a law named after her that helps employees prove pay discrimination in court. Mrs. Ledbetter passed away at the age of 86 on October 12, 2024. In honor of her contributions to the battle for pay equity, we offer this review of her impact on federal pay discrimination law.
Several federal statutes address pay discrimination. The Equal Pay Act (EPA) of 1963 amended the minimum wage section of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). It applies specifically to gender-based disparities in pay for equal work, treating them as minimum wage and overtime violations.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers discrimination “with respect to…compensation” based on race, sex, religion, color, and national origin. Section 706(e) of the statute states that an employee must file a charge within 180 days of an alleged discriminatory practice. This makes sense when the employee is aware of the discriminatory practice at or near the time it occurs, such as in many cases involving sexual harassment or wrongful termination. Pay discrimination can be much harder to identify. This is where Lilly Ledbetter enters the story.
Mrs. Ledbetter worked at a tire plant in Alabama from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. When she began working there, she earned the same amount as her male colleagues. By the time she retired, her monthly pay was about $500 to $1,500 less than theirs. She alleged that these pay disparities were based on sex discrimination.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against her in 2007 in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., holding that she failed to file a charge within Title VII’s 180-day time limit. Justice Ginsberg dissented, with three other justices joining her. She distinguished between an overtly adverse action like termination or demotion and pay discrimination, which typically results from many fairly minor decisions that occur over time. An employee typically has no way of knowing about these decisions until they have enough data about their own pay to compare to others. It would be almost impossible to know when the 180-day period began.
Two years later, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 in response to this ruling. The bill amends Title VII and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. It added § 706(e)(3), which states that pay discrimination is an ongoing unlawful practice. Each diminished paycheck is a violation of the law. In effect, the 180-day clock starts when an employee learns about the disparity.
The experienced employment attorneys at the Resnick Law Group advocate for the rights of employees in New Jersey and New York who have experienced pay discrimination and other unlawful workplace practices. To schedule a confidential consultation to see how we can assist you, please contact us today online, at 973-781-1204, or at 646-867-7997.