Today, Assemblymember Dave Jones’ (D-Sacramento) legislation to ensure that victims of pay discrimination continue to have a fair opportunity to seek redress in the courts passed the State Senate.  AB 437 clarifies that the time period for alleging pay discrimination claims runs from the date of each payment of a discriminatory wage.  The Senate passed the legislation with a vote of 22 to 15. 

In May, 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 Ginsburg (the only woman on the Court) called on Congress to act to correct the Court’s reading of discrimination law.  HR 2831 was introduced at the federal level in response to the Ledbetter decision and passed the House in August.  The bipartisan Senate bill S. 1843 is authored by Senators Kennedy, Boxer, Clinton, Obama, Snowe and Specter and should be considered this fall.  California is the first state to introduce legislation modeled after the federal legislation – Assemblymember Jones’ AB 437. 

“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.

In its report calling for Congress to amend Title VII after the Ledbetter ruling, the American Bar Association reported, “As it has now been construed, the statute of limitations will seriously erode the prohibition in Title VII against discrimination in wages based on improper factors, and will deny meaningful remedies to many victims.”  AB 437 is strongly supported by women’s rights, civil rights and labor organizations.  A video report about the legislation is available at:  http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a09/press/20070831AD09PR01.htm