January 28th, 2009 | By Paul Cherner
On January 27, 2009, the House and Senate reconciled their versions of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 and send the agreed bill to President Obama, who signed it into law on January 29, 2009.
The final version of this law is substantially broader than newspaper accounts, which often refer to it as being necessary to allow female employees to be able to proceed with respect to their claims of unequal pay. This law covers all categories of prohibited discrimination under Title VII, as well as under the ADA, ADEA and the Rehabilitation Act. Additionally, the law refers to decisions which may discriminatorily impact upon benefits and other forms of compensation. This latter provision may result in additional challenges with respect to benefit payments that are based upon compensation decisions that were made many years ago.
The law is intended to have a retroactive effect and apply to all charges that were pending on or after May 28, 2007.
January 9th, 2009 | By Paul Cherner
The U.S. House of Representatives passed “The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009″ on January 9, 2009. On January 22, 2009, the Senate passed its version of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The House and Senate will have to reconcile the two different versions of this bill and then send it to President Obama, who is expected to sign it. This bill will likely become law before the end of February, 2009. This act would amend Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment act, by expanding the time limit that an individual has to file an employment discrimination claim. The amendment would provide that the time for filing a discrimination claim would start to run after the adoption of a discriminatory compensation decision or when the individual becomes subject to such decision or practice or upon each additional application of that decision or practice. This last factor is known as the “paycheck rule”, which will mean that each time an employee receives a new paycheck that reflects what they believe to be discriminatory action under Title VII or the ADEA, the time for filing a charge will begin anew. This change will also apply to claims for violations of the ADEA, ADA and the Rehabilitation Act, if this bill is signed into law in its current form.
This new Act, if it becomes law, will reverse the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision which held that the time for filing an employment discrimination charge by employees (including Ms. Lilly Ledbetter) did not begin upon receipt of each new paycheck. The Senate is expected to consider this bill next week.
