LCCR Applauds House Passage of Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Paycheck Fairness Act; Urges Senate to Act Quickly

“Today’s House vote is a victory for all American workers.  The Leadership Conference lauds the U.S. House of Representatives for its continued support for the crucial civil rights issue of fair pay for workers.

If passed by the Senate, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act will assure Americans in these hard economic times that the rights of ordinary workers on the shop floor are as important and protected as those in the board rooms.

Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama, learned just before she was about to retire that she’d been making less that her male counterparts for 15 years.  She filed suit and won, but the Supreme Court took up the case and made a ruling that flies in the face of Congress’ original intent.

Lilly Ledbetter is a woman, but this is not only a women’s issue.  Nor is it solely a workers’ issue.  This is a civil rights issue. This is a matter of fairness and simple justice.

It is essential that the Senate, which failed to pass the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in the 110th Congress, do so now. Our nation’s economic situation is too serious for the political gamesmanship that some Republican senators are engaging in. We believe that any delay in Senate passage of these fair pay bills is a delay in justice.”