On Tuesday, May 29, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, upheld the 180-day statute of limitations for filing a Title VII lawsuit under Federal civil rights law if a worker is paid less based on race, sex, religion or national origin.  The 180 days runs from the date the employer makes their last decision.  The Court majority based their decision on the difficulty they felt employers would have in defending older claims.  The plaintiff was a Goodyear employee who discovered, but not until 19 years later, that she had been paid thousands of dollars less in wages than her male counterparts.  A jury found in her favor, but the case was overturned on appeal, saying that she waited too long to file suit.
“This is fundamentally unfair,” said Assemblymember Julia Brownley.  “A worker is at a serious disadvantage when the law places the burden on him or her to discover the discrimination or be forever barred from any remedy. And it provides a kind of ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card to any employer who is lucky enough not to be caught in time.” 
Although the Supreme Court decision involved Federal law, “when I heard about that case, I wanted to make sure that the outcome didn’t affect California workers, which is why I decided to author AB 435,” said Brownley. 

In California, the statute of limitations for filing an action to recover wages is two years.  To provide greater protection for California workers, AB 435 would do two things.  First, it extends the time allowed to file a gender-based lawsuit, and the time period for which back wages can be collected, from two years to four years, and to five years for willful violations.  Second, it requires employers to maintain wage and job classification records for five years, rather than the current two years, which will preserve evidence for both employers and workers.

“Gender-based discrimination has been prohibited under California law since 1949, Brownley noted. “In spite of this, however, employers still engage in unfair wage discrimination, paying women less than their male counterparts, even when they work the same number of hours, are the same age, have the same education, union status, and live in the same region of the country.  This isn’t acceptable, and AB 435 will add some much needed additional protections for workers.”