One Year Today Since the Supreme Court Ruled Pay Discrimination OK

Omaha Steve

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Sat May-31-08 08:41 AM
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One Year Today Since the Supreme Court Ruled Pay Discrimination OK

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/05/29/one-year-today-since-the-supreme-court-ruled-pay-discrimination-ok/

by Mike Hall, May 29, 2008

A year ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court told Lilly Ledbetter �tough luck,� in a 5�4 decision that made it much easier for corporations to get away with pay discrimination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSFttshcPk

Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, says since the ruling,

lower courts have relied on that unjust ruling to deny relief to other victims of discrimination President Bush�s effort to make our highest court friendlier to employers that discriminate has prevailed.

After years of working at an Alabama Goodyear tire plant, Ledbetter discovered she was being paid less than the lowest-paid man doing the same work. She gathered enough evidence to file suit and a jury awarded her $3.8 million. But Goodyear appealed to the Supreme Court.

In the court�s ruling, written by Bush-picked Justice Samuel Alito, the court said Ledbetter�and other workers�has no right to sue for remedy in cases of pay discrimination if they wait more than 180 days after their first paycheck, even if workers don�t discover the pay discrimination until years later.

Since the decision, unions, women�s groups, equal pay advocates and civil rights activists have mobilized to overturn the court�s ruling. But they have been met every step of the way with opposition from the Bush administration and Republican congressional leaders, including Sen. John McCain.

FULL story at link.

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