4-28-09, 4:59 pm
April 28th is Equal Pay Day. Because on average women earn about 78 cents for every dollar men earn, it took the average working woman from January 1st of last year until April 28th of this year to earn the same income the average man earned in 2008 alone.
'The jury is in, the studies are done and the conclusions are consistent. The gender pay gap is alive and well,' said National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy in a press statement. 'The disparity between what women and men are paid stubbornly persists, even after controlling for years of education, work experience and type of occupation.'
To mark the day and to tout the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Obama, the White House hosted a teleconference with reporters that included Lilly Ledbetter, Wednesday, April 28th.
It was Ledbetter's lawsuit against her former employer Goodyear Tire that sparked the struggle to pass the Fair Pay Act. After 19 years at the company, Ledbetter, 71, received an anonymous note from a co-worker saying that she was being paid 30 to 40 percent less than her male co-workers for doing the same job.
When she sued the company for discrimination, the jury agreed that the company had violated the law and owed her back pay and damages. But in 2007, the US Supreme Court threw out the jury award, ruling that Ledbetter was required to file the suit within six months of the first discriminatory paycheck, even if she did not find out about it until many years later.
Ledbetter said that her fight began when she found out how much she had been short-changed by her employer. 'I had to stand up for what was right,' she told reporters. She also said that unequal pay not only harmed her family's ability to have the necessities of life and a decent standard of living but it also adversely impacted things like her pension and her Social Security benefits, which were based on her wages. Even if Ledbetter had been able to keep the jury award, it would not have made up for the amount she lost overall.
Because of the Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter will never be able to recover the money she lost due to discrimination.
'We women and minorities, we're not asking for anything,' Ledbetter said. 'We just want what we earned and what we're rightfully entitled to.'
In 2008, the House of Representatives passed the Fair Pay Act to amend the law to give workers who have been discriminated against the right to sue within six months of the last discriminatory act. A Republican filibuster in the Senate blocked final passage.
The bill passed both houses in January of this year and was signed into law by President Obama shortly thereafter.
In discussing her story, Ledbetter, 71, said her employer warned employees not to discuss their pay with each other. 'We were told where I worked when we hired in that you will not discuss your pay with anyone or you will not work here.' The company also refused to post the pay scale publicly for the position she held.
Civil rights and workers' rights activists note that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is an important first step toward equality, but if employers can force employees to hide details about their wages, they could continue to discriminate. 'Clearly some employers will keep discriminating if they can get away with it,' said Gandy.
The Paycheck Fairness Act, which is pending before Congress, is one remedy to that problem because it would protect women from retaliation by employers for discussing their wages openly.
President Obama has expressed support for passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, but the White House could not offer a timeline for its final passage. 'It's legislation he supports, and it's legislation he thinks is needed,' said Jocelyn Frye, director of Policy and Projects for First Lady Michelle Obama.
