Thursday, March 24, 2022: Lilly Ledbetter Shared Her Powerful and History-Making Story
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) hosted a webinar featuring Lilly Ledbetter, for whom the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was named. This legislation revised the “timely filing” requirement the Congress had originally set out in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and which the SCOTUS interpreted in the Ledbetter case.
The 2009 bill amended Title VII’s “timely filing” requirement as to compensation claims (only) to eliminate the prior requirement for complainants to file their pay Charges either within 180 days of the alleged unlawful pay decision or within three hundred days in those states which have state anti-discrimination laws the federal EEOC had approved. Ms. Ledbetter had not filed her pay discrimination Charge for over a decade since the admittedly unlawful pay decision at-issue (and probably several other unlawful pay decisions) had occurred and even though she had been aware these decisions paying her less than similarly situated male managers had occurred.
As amended, Title VII now allows each paycheck resulting from a discriminatory decision to “restart the clock” for timely filing purposes. In other words, an employee may in 2022 timely challenge an unlawfully discriminatory pay decision an employer made in 1965 if the 1965 pay decision still limits the employee’s current pay.
In so amending Title VII, the Congress reaffirmed that compensation discrimination is analyzed as to each “pay decision,” and not based on “current pay” (as OFCCP currently routinely does in error). NOTE: The 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Act also rifle-shot amended only four anti-discrimination statutes and not all discrimination law statutes. Those statutes amended included Title VII (but not Executive Order 11246 which still applies its pre-Ledbetter Act timely filing period) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (but not either Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act nor 38 U.S.C. Section 4212 (aka VEVRAA)—which does not make discrimination against Protected Veterans unlawful – see 38 Section 4212: “(2) In addition to requiring affirmative action (emphasis added) to employ such qualified covered veterans under such contracts and subcontracts and in order to promote the implementation of such requirement).”
In this EEOC Webinar, Ms. Ledbetter shared her story about how she experienced pay discrimination, what she did about it, and how the Congress’ amendment of Title VII has helped countless women seeking relief from unlawful compensation discrimination. EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows and Vice-Chair Jocelyn Samuels joined in to discuss the meaning of Equal Pay Day and the agency’s efforts to stop and remedy pay discrimination.
Watch the 60-minute webinar on YouTube:
Please click here to view the video.