Klobuchar Votes for Equal Pay Rights
Press Release
Klobuchar Votes for Equal Pay Rights
Legislation brings pay disparities to light, advances equality for women
Fighting for equal pay for equal work, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar voted today in favor of legislation that makes it easier for workers who face discrimination based on gender, race, age, religion, disability or nation of origin to pursue pay discrimination claims. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed the Senate 61 to 39. A similar measure was blocked during the last Congress. If approved by the House of Representatives and signed by the President, the bill would overturn a 2007 Supreme Court decision that drastically limited victims' ability to file claims of pay discrimination.
"Passing this legislation is a critical step in the fight for equality for women in the workplace," said Klobuchar. "As the first woman elected to the Senate from Minnesota, I am glad we were able to restore the original intent of the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Pay Act."
Motivated by a 2007 United States Supreme Court decision, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act restores a reasonable time limit in which people can file pay discrimination claims. After nearly twenty years as an employee at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company factory, Lilly Ledbetter filed a pay discrimination claim based on the Equal Pay Act of 1963. However, the United States Supreme Court ruled against her claim because she had not filed it within 180 days of the day that Goodyear decided to pay her a discriminatory wage, even though she did not learn of the pay disparity for years.
Klobuchar said it is unreasonable to expect people to find out how much their colleagues earn relative to their own wages within 180 days of their first paycheck, especially in environments where discussing salaries is unusual, or even forbidden by their employers.
"The 2007 Supreme Court decision completely ignores the realities of the workplacethat employee records are kept confidential, and that there is no way to know when pay discrimination starts unless we require women to start the embarrassing practice of asking what men make," Klobuchar said.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would essentially clarify current law and put the nation right back where we were before the Ledbetter case to allow victims to file claims within 180 days of any discriminatory paycheck, giving Americans a realistic opportunity to file any necessary claims of wage bias.
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