Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

Floor Speech

LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT OF 2009 -- (House of Representatives - January 09, 2009)

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey. I thank Chairman Miller from California. I thank my friend Mr. McKeon as well for the consideration of this debate.

We've passed this bill before, properly so. Unfortunately, it didn't pass the Senate. It wasn't signed by the President. That will not happen this time. We will pass this bill. My belief is the Senate will pass this bill, and the President of the United States will sign it. Why? Because it's the right thing to do.

I listened to my friend in his conversation, but frankly, it somewhat belies the fact that there came a case to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court had to rule on the case, and the Supreme Court ruled on the statute of limitation.

The value of work, of course, Madam Speaker, lies in a job well done, not in the gender of the worker. I don't think there is a man or a woman in this Chamber who would disagree, but all too often in America, sexism, frankly, cheats women out of equal pay and equal worth. It still robs women of their equal right to earn a livelihood, to provide for their families and to secure the dignity of their labor. It does much of its worst work in the dark.

Frankly, women in this body all know that they make the same thing as the men in this body. Why? Because it's public information, but if it were secret information, notwithstanding the fact that we had a number of women vote against this the last time it was up, I would be shocked that they would do so again if they were put in the position of making $25,000 less than those of us who are males, doing exactly the same job. That is the position, of course, Lilly Ledbetter found herself in.

So many of us know by now that Lilly Ledbetter was precluded from recovery. For almost two decades, from 1979 to 1998, she was a hardworking tire plant supervisor. For much of her career, she suffered from two kinds of discrimination simultaneously--from sexual harassment when a manager said to her face that women didn't belong in a factory to the supervisor who tried to coerce her into a sexual encounter. There was pay discrimination as well. There's no doubt about that. Now, she couldn't recover for it because the Supreme Court said she hadn't acted. By the end of her career, she was making nearly $7,000 less than the lowest paid man in the same position.

Both kinds of discrimination were founded on the belief that women in the workplace are second-class citizens. I hope there are no women in America who believe that, and I would hope there are no men in America who believe that. I say that as a father of three women, as the grandfather of two granddaughters and as the great grandfather of a 2-year-old young woman.

Of the two, the unfair pay may have been the most damaging, between the sexual discrimination and the pay discrimination. The sexual discrimination, obviously, is abhorrent, but the pay discrimination diminished Lilly Ledbetter's opportunities in our country.

There has been a lot said on this floor about ``it's their money, and they know how to spend it better,'' and we've talked about that in terms of tax bills. ``It's their money, and they know how to spend it better.'' If that's the case, then I would hope that this bill would pass unanimously to make sure that their money, which they earn fairly, is paid to them so they then can use it as they see fit.

Ms. Ledbetter might have been in the dark to this day; they may have kept it a secret because people, particularly in the private sector, don't go around, saying, ``Well, I make X and you make Y.'' In fact, a lot of employers tell their employees, ``Don't tell people what you make.'' Lilly Ledbetter didn't know how badly she was being discriminated against.

A coworker, however, gave her proof of what her employer was doing to her. Such silent discrimination is surprisingly common because it is so difficult to identify. After all, how many of us know what the salaries of our coworkers are? As I said, we do. My friend from California knows that she makes the same thing as Mr. Miller makes, and that's appropriate. They are both elected; they both have the same job; they both work hard, and they're paid the same.

Lilly Ledbetter took her employer to court, but the Supreme Court finally ruled against her. So, apparently, there is a problem somewhere, not because she was making it all up but because she had failed to file suit 180 days after her first unfair paycheck. Now, that adopts the premise that the subsequent paychecks somehow were not in violation of the law. They were. Every time she was paid discriminatorily, it was another violation of the law. In fact, the 180 days should have run from the last violation of the law, which, of course, was the last time she was paid in a discriminatory fashion. You have 6 months to find out you're being paid unfairly or you're out of luck for a lifetime.

The Supreme Court's flawed ruling ignored the real-world facts of discrimination, and it has the potential to harm thousands of women, indeed, hundreds of thousands and millions of women and their children and their families and our communities and society, leaving victims of pay discrimination without any recourse.

As Justice Ginsburg said--and she put it in as a strong dissent--``Pay disparities often occur ..... in small increments; cause to suspect that discrimination is at work develops only over time. Comparative pay information, moreover, is often hidden from the employee's view ..... Small, initial discrepancies may not be seen to meet the Federal case, particularly when the employee, trying to succeed in a nontraditional environment, is averse to making waves.''

That's what Justice Ginsburg said. So, apparently, Justice Ginsburg thought there was a problem to which we ought to respond, which is what is happening today.

``The ball,'' Justice Ginsburg concluded, ``is in Congress' court ..... The legislature may act to correct this Court's parsimonious reading.''

That is what we are doing today. That is the right thing to do for our country. It is the right thing to do for women. It is the right thing to do for our families, and that is the aim of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

This bill gives employees a fair time limit to take action against discrimination. A 180-day limit will still stand, but the clock is reset after each violation of the law, as it should be, not simply after the first one, and that change fits our commonsense understanding of pay discrimination. It is not a single act but an ongoing practice that is renewed every time the employer signs an unfair paycheck.

Madam Speaker, pay discrimination anywhere is an attack on the dignity of every woman in every workplace in America. When workers face unfair pay, they should find us standing by their side, not throwing up technicalities and roadblocks on the way to equality.

For that reason, I urge every one of my colleagues, male and female, Representatives of all of the people who ought to have equal opportunity under the law. This accomplishes that objective. Vote for this important piece of legislation.

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