Congress Relaxes Rules on Suits Over Pay Inequity

In January of 2009, Congress approved a civil rights bill giving women, blacks, and Hispanics the chance to challenge the pay discrimination in the workplace. The bill was named for a longtime supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Alabama named Lilly M. Ledbetter. She thought that the bill would make it easier for workers to win lawsuits claiming pay discrimination based on sex, race, religion, national origin, age, or disability. A jury on the case had found that the company was paying Ms. Ledbetter less than male supervisors, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Supreme Court did not deny that Ms. Ledbetter had suffered discrimination, but said she should have filed her claim within 180 days of "the alleged unlawful employment practice," which was the initial decision to pay her less then men. Mr. Obama supported the bill, but George W. Bush threatened to veto it, saying that it would "encourage a flood of lawsuits by workers asserting stale claims."