Courting Disaster
The Senate and the Supremes square off over fair pay.
The 5-4 decision reversed decades of established law in most states. The EEOC had long held that each discriminatory paycheck resets the clock on the statute of limitations, so that workers could sue from the time they learned of the pay disparity, not from the date the disparity began. That makes sense: Most people don't know what their colleagues are paid, and many companies actively forbid workers from discussing their salaries on the job. Ledbetter only learned how badly she was underpaid after someone put an anonymous note in her mailbox listing the salaries of some of the factory's male supervisors—by that time, she'd been getting smaller paychecks for years.
The Supreme Court ruling effectively prevents anyone from suing under federal equal-pay laws, and creates a perverse incentive: So long as an employer manages to keep an employee's discriminatory compensation under wraps for six months, he or she is then free to continue discriminating against the worker without fear of lawsuits. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was so outraged by the majority decision that she read her scathing dissent from the bench. "In our view, the court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination," she said, and urged Congress to "correct this parsimonious reading" of the civil rights law.
Overnight, Ledbetter became a cause célèbre as an angry public responded to the decision. Hillary Clinton has invoked Ledbetter routinely on the campaign trail, and members of Congress from both parties jumped to introduce legislation to overturn the ruling. The House worked fast, and passed a bill restoring the old rules for equal pay suits within a matter of weeks. Action in the Senate has been a different story. Despite bipartisan sponsors on the bill, senators didn't even get around to holding a hearing until late last month, and the legislation now appears stalled in the face of stiff opposition from business groups thrilled by the Supreme Court decision.
These groups claim that the proposed law would bring a flood of new lawsuits related to decades-old facts, and burden companies with expensive record-keeping requirements and other paperwork hassles. After the January hearing, Wyoming senator Mike Enzi, the ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called the Fair Pay Restoration Act "unfair and unreasonable" and said the bill would do nothing but "keep America's trial lawyers and employment bar busy."
Jocelyn Samuels, the vice president for education and employment at the National Women's Law Center, says such arguments are misguided, and points out that employers lived under the old rules for a long time without enduring a barrage of discrimination claims. "Prior experience suggests this is a reasonable rule to apply," she says. Groups lobbying for the bill seem to think the senators will come around. "We're optimistic that they're going to mark it up and send it to the floor in the next few weeks," says Jocelyn Frye, general counsel for the National Partnership for Women and Families.
In fact, as Lilly Ledbetter fades from the public memory, the bill she inspired is languishing. Supporters acknowledge that there is no current plan to get it out of committee, despite strong support from committee chair Ted Kennedy. President Bush, meanwhile, has threatened to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.
The Senate's failure to take on the judiciary has implications beyond workplace gender discrimination. In Ledbetter v. Goodyear, the top court's conservatives ignored the original intent of the Civil Rights Act. According to Simon Lazarus, public-policy counsel to the National Senior Citizens Law Center, this court has similarly defied congressional intent on everything from litigation against the companies that helped Enron defraud its shareholders to cases involving mandatory binding arbitration, and lawmakers have done nothing about it.
The Ledbetter case, he adds, is hardly the first time a far-right Supreme Court has tried to gut American civil rights laws—justices made similar attempts under the late chief justice William Rehnquist in the late 1980s, but Congress responded in 1991 with new legislation to overturn the changes. In Lazarus' view, the apparent unwillingness of today's Congress to check judicial power will only embolden the Supreme Court to behave even more radically. The justices, he says, "get away with it with impunity right now because Congress is not just sclerotic but structurally unable to act."
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wouldn't want to lose my job but I must say this anyway;
employees have no rights in America, abuse is rampant and there is nothing that can be done about it because the laws favor the employers.
period.
end of story.
Probably a good thing too, for the economy.
Can't win.
This caseillustrates the current mindset of state, local, and federal governments i.e. Just die and go away.E have stolen our share of the pie - here are your crumbs.
I think that hyphenated-americanism is a very negative phenomenon, I think it prevents the best qualified party from being placed in a given position, and thus sand-bags our domestic industries. People cry and whine about imports, but when there's nosebleed taxes and exotic hiring requirements, there's a problem.
Robots can make tires, too, and so can people in Malaysia. That having been said, there's something to be said for having honest, capable, experienced people on the job, and it bears remembering that Enron folded up like a cheap kite after a lady at their company got a case of conscience. When a company, any institution, fires their institutional knowledge, that whole conscience thing can go out the window, and usually, when that happens, someone cuts corners in fatal fashion, and then the bad people with the briefcases come...
"Wyoming senator Mike Enzi, the ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, called the Fair Pay Restoration Act "unfair and unreasonable" and said the bill would do nothing but "keep America's trial lawyers and employment bar busy." "
You mean they will be doing their jobs, for what I'm assuming is a VERY fat paycheck? Big deal.
All of these greedy super thumps have made their corrupt "thumb in your buddies sphincter" chain around the neck of this nation and are happily choking the life out of it. May they all burn in their fantasy hell...
This is truly sad. I am so sick of this country treating people like dirt. This will never end until people wake up and vote the republicans out. And keep them out. I fell so bad for woman in the U.S.A. Whats next?? Are going to make woman cover her head??
You have to view the upper levels of our Federal Government (the Sentate, the Presidency, the leadership in the House, the Federal Reserve and to some degree, but more servant to really, the Supreme Court) for what it is - an Oligarchy. It’s the natural result of the maturation of our form of Republic/Democracy. It won’t be reversed by any election or political party but the Oligarchy will not last and we’ll slide towards a brief period facism or a kind of everyman for himself barely controlled chaos, followed by another violent revolution that will lead to god only knows what. The slide to a complete Oligarchy was completed years ago. What we’ve been seeing for the last 25 years or so is an attempt by the now failing Oligarchy to maintain the myth of a functioning Republic. But predictably, the Oligarchy has begun to believe its own myths. So you have this state of disconnect from reality that bewilders your average and at the moment powerless citizen or journalist. But the Oligarchy wants what it wants so it can’t resist its own worst tendencies so the disconnect from reality grows steeper and the acts become more and more overt and crazy (crazy to one who isn’t party to the morality destroying wealth of the Oligarchy that is). Finally, desperation sets in as the Oligarchy itself begins to feel the results of it’s own failed policies and years of neglecting good governance. Then, the Oligarchy unconsiously switches from trying to maintain the myth of a functioning Republic via some level of self-control and some policy consideration for the masses to trying to passify the masses with circus and beer (another rebate check anyone?). But this act of desperation only buys the Oligarchy more time. But time for what? It has no ability for “change” as it is not a functioning governing body with the tools for introspection and discipline (not a coincidence that this word “change” is being thrown around this election year in such vague terms). Finally, the last chapter is written when a number of the Oligarchy’s failed “policies” come home to roost at the same time, destroying the Nations economy or worse. This destiny for all democractically organized governments is spelled out by Plato in “The Republic” and it’s the reason why we all know that name thousands of years later even if we don’t all know or understand his work. It’s the reason the founding fathers drafted the Constitution to be a living, changing document. If you were diligent and careful you could constantly update and re-invent Democracy so that the “decline” was never allowed to begin. But we have not been diligent and careful with it, consumerism and fossil fuels drove us all to distraction. The end.
I can not believe that something like this is still an issue in this country, how very disappointing and shameful. and how shameful of us just nagging at the computer screen
1.) a complaint must be filed within 180 days.
2.) An employee (at Goodyear) cannot get pay information on other employees unless a complaint is filed.
How many tires could Goodyear manufacture if every female employee filed a complaint with the EEOC?
With Mitch McConnell and others maintaintaining the injustice watch, other Senators are loathe to undertake issues that will not end. One of the results of the injustice league's inexorable vigilance is that we waste resources getting no where. It's like constantly running an engine at full throttle with only a timble full of fuel at a time. Worse still they own the fuel plant. So the more we flail at their injustices the more money they make; and perversely - the more they make the greater the spread of their injustices.
Mitch McConnell and the "Just us" league will rule as long as we don't have a filabuster-proof Senate. Remove him and half of his collegues during this election cycle. PLEASE!
Not a bad idea, really. Mutual discovery will be hell on wheels and it would be even worse if the plaintiffs also avoided class status. The joint and mutual discovery process would force Goodyear to actually settle. If they tried bankruptcy the shareholders couldn't get their investment out of the ashes.
Just a continuation of the 'good old boys club'. I am ashamed that this is just another instance of the unfairness of the attitudes and laws encouraged by the selfish group in charge.
Is this never going to end?
The irony is the vast majority of American women labor hardest at keeping themselves completely uninformed (as do the vast majority of American men), and will never know the Supremes assassinated another of their fundamental rights.
Although I'm a dyed-in-the-wool cynic, I disagree nothing can be done. I suggest you share this knowledge with even one person who wouldn't otherwise be aware of this decision, and ask that person to tell one other, and to write one letter of protest -- to a congressperson, newspaper, blog, whatever.
Big chunks of democracy were stolen from us over the past seven years. I agree we don't have the power to recapture what we lost in one fell swoop, but any journey starts with a single step.
I submit we must do what we can to make the vast majority around us realize that by choosing apathy, they are CHOOSING to give up their rights. So long as the majority chooses to relinquish its rights, our rights will continue to disappear.
Cynic though I am, I believe we can still regain our lost rights. I doubt we have much time remaining. But all it will take to start is for each of us to tell just one other person, etc...
I can certainly feel Lilly Ledbetters' rage. being a male but working in the Transpportation Industry ( truck driver ) We have not been covered under the fair wage act. I can work 14 hour days and get paid a percentage of what the load pays, I have worked 14 hour days for as little as 48 dollars! Because i drove to the reciever , after manually loading the truck , and i had to wait hours for the " privalege" to unload my truck. I once 36 hours, time to lioad and get the vehicle inspected and cleared through customs. Then couple the 8 hour dribe to the reciever, 44 hours for 150.00 dollars!! This Supreme Court ruling was pure B.S. ! Another blow for the working class men and woman, Corporations pay virtyally no taxes, then do not want to pay their workers a fair wage!
And why wasn't this problem taken care of during Bill Clintons 8 years? It is booth parties! They pimp them selves out to the higher bidder / special interest group, and sell thier soul and the country down the drain. Wake up! Over 2 million manufacturing jobs left durung Clintons rein, and over 3 million under the Bush regime. So I guess if we use your logic the country was better of during Clinton? right? Get real. Read a book turn your t.v. off and open your mind!
thank you! someone with a Philosophy and common sence background! I could not have put it better myself! Might I ad that if one is to read Plato's Allegory of the Cave, they would witness and see society as it is today. Run by deception, the workers unable
to see through the propaganda that is forced fed to them everyday, by the Corporation of Mass Media.
Your mistaken about the amount of taxes corporation pay. To round out everything, Americans generate 1.2 trillion dollars in collected from taxes. Of that Corporations only contribute... roughly $272 billon dollars! Know the rich do not pay taxes so were does that other roughly $ 900 billion come from? That's right the poor and the middle class! Big bussiness is not hurting, eversince they re did the tax code in this country ( once again pick up a book do research, college 101) you will see that it is been a free for all in corporations leaving this country. All in the name of corporate profits, mind you thought were not these business's profitable prior to the restructuring of the tax codes? I can asure you that they were, just read!
To say that mandating equal pay requires companies to keep special and burdensome records is ridiculous on its face. Companies can AVOID extra record keeping if they just obey the law and pay people equally regardless of their gender. It is a real tragedy that men blatantly rule against women repeatedly by calling white black and getting away with it. This ruling is one good reason why we need a feminist in the White House.
"it is easier to steal $1 from a million men than it is to steal $1,000,000 from one man"
George Bush is not my president, and the fact that the Supreme Court can get away with writing whatever laws they like however they like is just another reminder of what a Draconian society the United States really is.
The injustice of the High Court's Ledbetter decision,the inaction of the Senate to reverse it, and the threat of President Bush to veto any reform legislation, underscores the need to elect a Democratic President and a larger, much larger Democratic Congressional majority with the ability and hopefully the gumption to restore and expand equal protection to all our people, and to stand against corporate corruption and control of our core values.
There is no doubt we are existing in an unbridled capitalist fascist psuedo religious state. And anyone who truly understands unbridled capitalism has to realize that fascism and unbridled capitalism are the left and right hand of economic oppression. The evidence is evident in CEO and top execs exorbitant salaries and outrageous benefits; in GOP subservience to the corporate entity and to the pandering of the so-called Christian Right by our present criminal fascist regime. And of course their is the fascists war where our beautiful, brave young men and women die in and kill innocents for corporate oils sake!
Roberts and Alito are the ultimate fascists. Their emboldened lies to Congress and in effect the American people in their pre-supreme court hearings shows what total disrespect and disregard these fascists thugs have for our Constitution and the American people. Obviously, judging by their constant, obsequious, subservient catering to the corporate entity, these thugs believe there is nothing we, the people can do now. How wrong they are!
This JUNE 4th we will declare anti-fascist day and all citizens of a free and democratic republic will take that day off from work. We will not drive our car or go out to eat, nor will we spend a penny at Wal-Marts or any other retailer except to obtain food from the super market. Instead we will have our own holiday, we will cook out or play games or stay home and for one day we will not feed the monster; we will shut this corporate monkey down.
A drop of water is nothing by itself but millions of drops of water can erode and breach anything.
This June 4th lets begin the erosion of this fascist empire!
Seems this Congress is full of more [deleted]s than I thought. They won't stand up to anybody or anything. They are selling the citizens down the river. [deleted] Democrats and arrogant Republicans. What more could a country ask for.
It makes me sick! America is now leadened with a Supreme Kangoroo Court and those rednecks justices. Pity on the weak and the poor of America. As a fellow human being, I am ashamed... Is God truly on their side?
HAving two young daughters, the road this country has been taking the past 7 years sickens me to no end. My parents were strict conservatives, and we have VERY lively 'discussions' when I was growing up, but I would have to say they too would be aghast at what is ocurring at every level of government.
To ignore the original intent of civil rights, this Supreme Court should be tarred/feathered and sunk into the atlantic. It sickens me to think what y daughters may have to live with in their lifetimes because of these several past years. And I fear for them.
Most women are very much discriminated in pay.Traditional FEMALE jobs like teaching or nursing were low paying in the 60's or NO PAY ---NUNS .Health care ,child care ,cooking cleaning Female entertainment.FREE .If you take the skills and knowledge required for a WOMEN to survive in today's technology and most men who get paid a lot more and they DO NOT KNOW HOW THINGS WORK and will not learn how to do the computer or ADMINISTRATIVE work and we are paid like it is still 1975. A lot of women are terribly underpaid ,overworked and taken advantage of.I THINK IT IS TIME SOMEONE STARTED PAYING MORE ATTENTION.GLOBALAZATION HURTS MORE WOMEN THEN men .if it was the men getting tossed out ,outsourced ,fired at will, no benefits, temp work THINGS WOULD CHANGE IN A HURRY.
Good posts Schneid72 and Al Comstock. This is just a sympton of what the American aristocracy have done with our nation. A simple case of meeting the designs of the Constitution by the body in our government that is supposed to accurately interpret it results in an insane judgement designed to undermine the it. And if the other third of our government is able to present a correction to this abominable decision despite the aristocracy's effort to make it impotent to the needs of the people, the last third is so thoroughly anti-Constitutional it will compound it's treason with another act of anti-Constitutionalism and veto what goodness that does still exist in our government of 'checks and balances'. Sorry Lily and all the other women out there who are descriminated against. Sorry to all of us who are not part of the entitled American aristocracy.
More criminal acts by a Criminal govt.
Hey Altman?? Notice how everyone ignored you?? LOL fool
we are being farmed by the administration. they have removed any technology that would compete with them including:
No more navigation by sextant. No more taking the temp of a child with a glass thermonator. No more slide rules. And the list goes on. Now we are stuck with the satellite for navigation, the plastic things for temperature. The calculator for math..and of course "spell check". Even they own our address books. Prostitution is gone...nothing that could compete is allowed to remain in our world. Soon it will be ammunition that disappears. Vote for war to gain peace. Love it or leave it!!
Funny. I thought that she agreed to work for that wage. Guess not.
So now you Lib's are telling me how much i have to PAY people..? If i have an employee who produces more than another, i will pay them more. It doesn't matter if they are man or woman. But it does seem that ladies have to "Leave" work much more often that men, and maybe this is why the get a little less..? Or that they, over the course of career, seem to be distracted with family stuff. Maybe they have to make a choice, produce liek a man or get less money..HUH?
Bill
Gene Floyd;
In regard to your comment. It is another example of the old boy's club, and I'm sure that the good old boys who drafted this instrument of oppression had a good old time doing it.
this is part of a pattern of fraud practiced by corrupt judges and lawyers ....... they are first and foremost corporate lawyers and cogs in the military - industrial complex ...... retained to rip - off honest folk and cover - up for THE BAR and other criminal organizations .
TYPICAL OF THE LYING LAWYERS is ex-judge jay spechler , GOOF MOMBACH , cuda hollander and HAM HUMAWAY .
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