Dear Democratic Senators,
Congratulations - you have managed to re-institute the status quo of just two years ago.
Please stop pretending that the Lilly Ledbetter legislation is significant progress -- all that happened is just one tiny fix- to a practically insane SC decision. Up until two years ago, it was well understood that the most recent discriminatory paycheck reset the clock on the statute of limitations. So... your legislation has returned some tiny measure of common sense to the courtroom, but that is all you've achieved.
By shelving the Paycheck Fairness part of bill the House passed to you, you've managed to make sure that fair pay will not actually be achieved anytime soon while generating a nice photo-op.
What the Lilly bill does not do (but could have) amongst other things...
- require employers to prove a business necessity in order to discriminate in paying men and women (has the effect of requiring employers to pay men and women roughly commensurately).
- outlaw employers from punishing employees for discussing compensation (how exactly did Lilly find out about her employer's discrimination? - anonymous tip that could have been punished by firing)
Of course now that we've had a nice photo-op, to bring up the rest of the bill would be to admit that the Lilly legislation did nothing to actually improve employee's situations and it has the added benefit of reducing public pressure for exactly that (no doubt helping your corporate contributors significantly).
So thanks for the quick fix, but no thanks for the complete lack of progress on employment discrimination,
Nathan