Another Look at the Supreme Court’s Recent Decision

Workplace Buzz on June 11, 2007 7:24 AM

Sue Davis, for Workers World, writes, In a 5-4 decision on May 29, the Supreme Court ruled that it didn’t matter that supervisor Lilly M. Ledbetter had over the course of 20 years been paid less than her male peers. What mattered was a technicality. She hadn’t filed her case (Ledbetter v. Goodyear) with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 180 days of the first time the discrimination occurred.

In 1998 Ledbetter, the only woman among 16 supervisors at the same management level, discovered she was being paid as much as 40 percent less than the men, even those with less seniority. Though she started at the same salary, she received smaller and smaller raises between 1979 and 1998.

No wonder there’s been a firestorm of reaction against the reactionary decision. Groups like the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Women’s Law Center and the National Organization for Women have all denounced the decision for severely limiting all workers’ legal options.

Meanwhile business groups are clinking champagne glasses. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Chamber Litigation Center hailed the decision as a “victory” because corporations will now be protected from “employees trying to dredge up stale pay claims.”

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