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Klobuchar Speaks Out For Equal Pay

Legislation would bring pay disparities to light

April 22, 2008

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar joined several of her female colleagues this week in speaking on the Senate floor in favor of legislation that clarifies laws related to pay discrimination.  The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (H.R. 2831), which is expected to receive a vote later this week, would overturn a 2007 court decision that drastically limited victims’ ability to file claims of pay discrimination based on gender, race, age, religion, disability, or nation of origin.

“It is hard to believe that 88 years after the 19th Amendment gave women equal voting power and 45 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, it still takes women 16 months to earn what men can earn in 12 months,” Klobuchar said.

Motivated by a 2007 United States Supreme Court decision, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act restores a reasonable time limit in which people can file pay discrimination claims. After nearly twenty years as an employee at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company factory, Lilly Ledbetter filed a pay discrimination claim based on the Equal Pay Act of 1963. However, the United States Supreme Court ruled against her claim because she had not filed it within 180 days of the day that Goodyear decided to pay her a discriminatory wage, even though she did not learn of the pay disparity for years.

“Eleanor Roosevelt once said it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,” said Klobuchar. “That is why it is important that the Senate pass this legislation – we need to light a candle and continue to shed light on this issue.’’
 
Klobuchar said it is unreasonable to expect people to find out how much their colleagues earn relative to their own wages within 180 days of their first paycheck, especially in environments where discussing salaries is taboo, or even forbidden by their employers.
 
“This decision completely ignores the realities of the workplace—that employee records are kept confidential, and that there is no way to know when it starts unless we require women to start the embarrassing practice of asking what men make,” Klobuchar said.
 
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would essentially clarify current law and put the nation right back where we were before the Ledbetter case to allow victims to file claims within 180 days of any discriminatory paycheck, giving Americans a realistic opportunity to file any necessary claims of wage bias.

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