SACRAMENTO –Assemblymember Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) announced state legislation today to ensure that victims of pay discrimination continue to have a fair opportunity to seek redress in the courts.  AB 437 clarifies that the time period for alleging pay discrimination claims runs from the date of each payment of a discriminatory wage.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court by one vote overturned decades of precedent in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., severely limiting workers’ ability to bring pay discrimination claims.  The court said that Lilly Ledbetter had waited too long to sue for pay discrimination despite the fact that she had filed a complaint as soon as she received an anonymous note alerting her to the pay discrimination on the basis of sex.  The court said that Ledbetter was required to file a complaint within 180 days of the discriminatory pay decision. 

In her dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (the only woman on the Court) called on Congress to act to correct the Court’s reading of discrimination law.  Last week, HR 2831 was introduced at the federal level in response to the Ledbetter decision.  The federal legislation is expected to be heard in policy committee today and reported to the House floor soon thereafter for a floor vote.  AB 437 (Jones) is expected to be heard in policy committee in the State Senate in the next two weeks.  California’s legislation is modeled after the federal bill that was introduced last week.

“The court’s decision ignores the realities of the workplace where salaries are often hidden and discriminatory wage decisions have ongoing and cumulative impacts.  The court’s ruling encourages employers to hide information and will likely lead to more unlawful discrimination.  The decision could force employees to file needless complaints simply to protect their rights, even before they have all the information to know if discrimination is occurring.  Congress is acting to correct the law at the federal level.  This legislation will ensure that the Supreme Court's flawed decision does not apply to state laws that affect a worker’s right to equal pay,” explained Assemblymember Dave Jones, Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, at the present rate of progress (prior to the Ledbetter decision), it will take 50 years to close the wage gap between men and women nationwide.  Women employed full-time still earn only 77% of what men earn.