Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Listen to the npr link http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99995431
Whatever I write can not give justice to Nina Totenberg's news story.

For anyone who knows me, I'm sure you are aware of how important not only pay equity is to me, but this specific issue with Lilly Ledbetter. She is an American hero, bring civil rights and "equal pay for equal work" back onto the national scene. In 2006, the supreme court decision Ledbetter v. Goodyear was decided against Ledbetter: she had sued Goodyear for paying her less than men doing the same job and the court decided that any pay discrimination claim had to be filed within 180 days of the pay agreement. This was a huge setback in civil rights. Employees don't discuss their pay with each other, so how could she possibly know? She only found out after working at Goodyear for TWENTY years.

In 2007, Sen. Kennedy introduced the "Fair Pay Restoration Act", which would change the court's ruling from 180 days after the original pay setting decision to 180 after each paycheck. Kennedy justified that each paycheck should be seen as an act of discrimination. The House passed it, but the Senate fillibustered it- not that it would matter because Bush said he would veto it. John McCain had this to say of the bill: "I don't believe that this would do anything to help the rights of women." And this man wonders why, at one of his town hall meetings on the campaign trail, a young woman asked him, "Sen. McCain, why do you hate women?". McCain skipped the vote on the "Fair Pay Restoration Act" because he was too busy campaigning to fly back to Washington for something that wasn't really important. That's ancient history. So is McCain.

Today Obama signed his first peice of legislation (after going through both houses), "The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act". It helps to mitigate the affects of that awful supreme court decision by giving women and minorities more tools to sue their employers in cases of pay discrimination. It is interesting that among the 5 senate republicans who supported it- 4 of them were women. So, all male senate republicans- except for Arlen Specter- voted against it. All I have to do is point to this statistic when I am accused of being one sided and only liking democrats. How can I like a party that stands for discrimination? Where is their moral compass pointed to?

To those people who doubt the affect that the federal government has on your life- let this be a lesson. Do you want to earn 40% less than your male collegaues?

I am proud that our President's first signature on a bill was one that takes us closer to equality- the notion that America was founded on, but never seems able to fully grasp.