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Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

Date: Jan. 9, 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Employment and Affirmative Action

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Ms. HIRONO. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 11, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. And I want to thank Chairman George Miller for his continuing leadership and dedication in bringing this bill to the floor.

H.R. 11 is needed because the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2007, ruled in Ledbetter v. Goodyear that did not take into consideration the reality that discovering discriminatory pay at the outset is difficult for employees. The Court's imposition of 180 days to file a discrimination claim is totally unrealistic and unfair.

When Lilly Ledbetter came to testify before the Education and Labor Committee in 2007, I was moved by her story of justice denied. Ms. Ledbetter was deprived of lost wages compensation because she did not know she was being paid less than her male colleagues until many years had passed since her employers made the initial decision to discriminate.

This bill restores fairness to any employee who has been paid less than their coworkers. I urge my colleagues to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, as well as the Paycheck Fairness Act also being debated this morning.

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