Hundreds Rally For Passage of Fair Pay Act
Washington, DC – Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, made the below statement following a rally for passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which has been stalled in the Senate:
“Last year, the Supreme Court weakened worker protections in Ledbetter v. Goodyear – allowing a major corporation to get away with nearly 20 years of pay discrimination against a woman supervisor, Lilly Ledbetter. That’s why the Senate should act now and pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – the only bill that would restore workers’ right to redress from employers who discriminate and lighten their paychecks because the worker is a woman, a minority, a senior or a person with disabilities.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison recently introduced a distorted version of the real Fair Pay Act. She’s calling it the Title VII “Fairness” Act but it isn’t fair at all. It would actually make it hard and complicated for workers to sue a discriminatory employer. It’s no more than a fig leaf for Republicans who don’t want to vote against workers during an election year.
Senators must not be allowed to hide behind the Hutchison bill. The Senate needs to return to the original intent of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – namely that every discriminatory paycheck is an act of discrimination. They need to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.”
Pictured: Lilly Ledbetter, plaintiff in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. at Equal Pay Rally on Capitol Hill.