After hearing the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act arise in conversation many times as an example of social progress, I feel the need to clarify exactly what the act is and why I believe it is incredibly overrated. Coined the “Equal Pay for Equal Work” act, the purpose of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is to extend the period of time in which a person can file a discrimination suit if she has experienced pay discrimination. Interestingly, the law would not have been absolutely necessary if the Supreme Court in 2007 had not decided to change the way that pay discrimination cases would be handled. According to the case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Year, in 2007, victims of paycheck discrimination could only file a claim for pay discrimination within 180 days of the original pay-setting decision. Prior to this, victims could sue within 180 days of the last paycheck. So, with the 2007 ruling, if an employee was denied a raise due to gender, she would have had to bring a claim against the employer within 180 days of the raise decision. The change from the date of the last paycheck to the date of the last pay-setting decision meant that women would have much less time to discover if they were being paid discriminately, and would likely remain unaware of their exploitation until it was too late. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act simply returns the law to the way it was before the ridiculous 2007 Supreme Court ruling, allowing a person to sue within 180 days after the last discriminatory paycheck she received.

Now, what we need, what feminists have been fighting for since the second wave, is equal pay for equal work. Yes, I’m happy we now have a longer time to sue against discriminatory pay, but this still doesn’t help the women who don’t know they’re being paid unfairly, who have found out they have been paid unfairly for 20 years but can only get backpay for two, and for women who don’t have the resources to file a lawsuit against their employer. Basically, the 2009 Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, lauded as being oh-so-progressive, just returned us the rights we had prior to the 2007 Supreme Court ruling. So, as you can tell, I’m not quite ready to hoist another laurel on Obama for his stance on gender equity. My opinion could change, however, if during this term the administration and Congress can work together to get the Paycheck Fairness Act passed.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would close the loopholes that have arisen over time in the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (I have to wonder, how many of those second wave feminists thought we’d still be fighting this same battle in 2013?). Why is this important? Well, besides the fact that I think we aim to be a country of some kind of equality, ensuring fair pay and giving victims the resources to combat unequal pay would stimulate the economy. When 60% of women are breadwinners or co-breadwinners in their homes, equal pay for equal work is absolutely necessary for economic stability on a national level. The Paycheck Fairness Act, which narrowly failed in the Senate in 2009 and 2012, would give victims of discrimination more tools to combat discriminatory pay (e.g. make discriminatory pay easier to discover, rather than forcing women, people of color, and other minority groups to go around asking their more privileged colleagues about their salaries). According to an ACLU fact sheet, the act would “require employers to demonstrate that wage differentials between men and women holding the same position and doing the same work stem from factors other than sex,” “prohibit retaliation against workers who inquire about their employers’ wage practices or disclose their own wages,” and “strengthen penalties for equal pay violations.” To give an example of why these are necessary, Lily Ledbetter herself didn’t find out she was a victim of discriminatory pay until she received an anonymous letter, as Goodyear prohibited employees from discussing salaries.

According to a recent article by Noliwe M. Rooks in TIME magazine, 2009 statistics suggest that women still earn about 7% less than their male counterparts in the exact same occupations. Numbers are even worse for African American women and Latinas. Though men lost many jobs during the recession, they have gained disproportionately more in the economic recovery. Considering that so many women are breadwinners, these two facts are absolutely unacceptable. Until fair pay is guaranteed for every qualified worker, the U.S. will not reach true economic prosperity. Passing the Paycheck Fairness Act is an imperative step to take on American’s road to economic recovery.

Emelia Truluck is a College freshman from Savannah, Ga

Emory Wheel
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