Support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Recipient: U.S. Senate

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, representing nearly 200 member organization, we urge you to vote yes on cloture, yes on final passage, and against any amendments on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (S. 181), which corrects the Supreme Court’s misinterpretation of Title VII regarding when a pay discrimination claim is timely filed.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which passed the House of Representatives on January 9, 2009 by a 247-171 margin and is supported by 113 progressive and civil rights organizations (list attached), will ensure that victims of pay discrimination are able to remedy the harm done to them. In today’s economic climate, working families are struggling to make ends meet. Women and minorities in particular are often forced to raise their families on incomes lower than those of colleagues performing the same jobs. By giving victims of discrimination a reasonable opportunity to seek redress for pay discrimination, this bill will help ensure that women and minority workers are not shortchanged, thus promoting stable family incomes and preventing the kinds of home foreclosures and credit defaults that precipitated the current recession.

The Supreme Court, in its May 29, 2007 Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber decision, upended decades of paycheck discrimination precedent. The Court held that the 180-day statute of limitations for paycheck discrimination claims under Title VII should be calculated from the day a pay decision is made, rather than from when employees are subject to or injured by the decision, such as when they received their most recent paycheck. As a result, victims who did not learn of their discrimination until well after the date their pay rate was set were left without recourse. The Ledbetter decision affected a wide range of discrimination claims, including not only Title VII claims based on race, gender, and religion, but also claims based on disability and age. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will reinstate the old rule, allowing victims of discrimination to pursue a claim within 180 days of their last paycheck.

We urge you to support economic security for working families by voting for cloture, for final passage, and against any amendments on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Please contact Paul Edenfield, LCCR Counsel and Policy Analyst at 202-263-2852, or Nancy Zirkin at 202-263-2880, if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Wade Henderson, President & CEO
Nancy Zirkin, Executive Vice President