Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009--Continued

Floor Speech

LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT OF 2009--Continued -- (Senate - January 22, 2009)

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. P resident, today we get a second chance to do the right thing.

Millions of American women and men understand that it is wrong for a woman to work, year after year, alongside a man and make less money simply because she is a woman.

Millions of American women understand--unfortunately many know first hand--that you don't always know when you are being discriminated against. Proof that you have been a victim of discrimination rarely boils down to one magic moment where the curtain is raised and it is all m ade clear. And of course, the curtain hardly ever comes up within 180 days of the actual ``act'' of discrimination.

All too often, discrimination based on gender happens exactly the way it happened to Lilly Ledbetter. Paycheck after paycheck, a woman receives lower pay than her male colleagues. But only after years does she discover that this was even happening. Only after years does she discover that it has been the result of discrimination.

It is just as demeaning, and in many ways even more frust rating, than a single, concrete episode of bias.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who took the unusual step of reading her dissent in Lilly Ledbetter's case from the bench, was outraged by her compatriots on the Supreme Court who held the passage of time against Lilly Ledbetter. You see, Justice Ginsburg understands what so many Americans also understand--that it is often a series of small and hidden decisions that add up to a lifetime of unequal pay. This kind of discrimination can't be tied to one definiti ve act. Instead, it comes from the cumulative effect of weeks, months, and sometimes years of bigotry and injustice.

Many of us have daughters and granddaughters who need us to vote for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. What will you say if your daughter or granddaughter calls you tonight and said, ``Hey, I need some advice. I have had this job for 5 years. I have been working really hard and I have always had good reviews, my colleagues like me, and I love my job. I need this job to support my family. But I just found out that all along, I have been getting paid about 75 percent of what the guys here get paid for doing the same thing. I have been asking around and it turns out our supervisors have been doing this for a while--paying men more, and saying things about women that are negative. One guy even said that our workplace doesn't need women. What should I do?''

Do you want to tell your daughter or granddaughter, ``Well, if the decision to discriminate against you was made more than 180 days ago, that is too bad, you should have complained earlier''?

I don't want to do that, and I don't intend to. I want to be able to say to my daughter, and all American daughters, wives, sisters, and granddaughters: There is something you can do about this. This behavior is wrong, and Congress gave you a way to make it right. Plain and simple.

It is un-American to work your whole life for a fraction of what your colleagues make, solely because you are a woman. It is un-American to tell a woman who just wants a fair shake in exchange for 20 years of work that she should have known what was going on, and now it is too late--that she should have filed a new claim after every paycheck.

Congress did not pass Title VII, not to mention the Equal Pay Act, 46 years ago only to lace it with traps and trip wires for the unwary worker.

Some critics of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act have said that it will lead to an onslaught of lawsuits. But the Congressional Budget Office has said that this isn't true. I believe that is based on the obvious proposition that most women don't want to sue their employers. They don't go out of their way to ruin their own lives with lawsuits. They didn't do it before the Ledbetter decision, and there is no reason to believe that they will do it after we restore the import of the law.

Lilly Ledbetter didn't want to sue. In fact she has said that she wouldn't have bothered if she thought the case was close, or the result of an oversight, or based on poor reviews. But, as all of the ev idence showed, it wasn't. Lilly Ledbetter said: ``It wasn't even close to being fair. I had no choice. I had to go to court. I had to stand up for what was right.''

This bill isn't some windfall for women to sit on their hands without bringing claims during years of discrimination. All of an employer's normal defenses are untouched by this bill. We have discussed the legal defenses and the operation of various parts of this bill ad nauseum, but overlawyering this isn't going to change the fact that women make 78 cents on the dollar compared to similarly situated men.

The right to make a fair wage to support your family, regardless of gender, is not something that should be doubted in America. The right to equal paychecks is something that Congress thought it guaranteed 46 years ago, and which was not in doubt until Lilly Ledbetter's case reached the Supreme Court.

We must take the very simple step of restoring this right so that women in America can be assured that their hard work for their families and their country will be compensated on the same basis as men.

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