Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentleman for his hard work and for his leadership.

It's a rare privilege to cosponsor a bill about a law that I once enforced, but no pleasure at this time because it takes me back to the future, repeating what Congress did on this floor more than 40 years ago, permitting only what the act previously enforced, exactly as it was when I chaired the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, both before and since that time.

The plaintiff in a discrimination suit carries a heavy burden; Congress never meant it to be an impossible burden. This is secret information--the pay of your coworkers. There is no way for you to know that kind of information any more than you know the health condition of your coworkers. Therefore, what we usually do in enforcement is give an incentive for the employer to contain his liability through self-remediation. The moment he finds the problem, he can contain his liability by in fact correcting the problem. Essentially what the Supreme Court has done is to perversely invite him to hold out for 180 days, and then it's all over, no matter how much discrimination.

This is a bill that must be passed because it already was passed more than 40 years ago

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