Congratulations America, President Obama Signs Equal Pay for Equal Work Bill

How fitting that President Barack Obama signed his first bill on January 29, 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. Mr. Obama's signing of the new Equal Pay legislation ends a legally flawed 2007 decision of the United States Supreme Court which said employees had only 180 days to file pay-discrimination lawsuits. The new legislation will make it easier for women and other protected classes to sue for the present effects of past discrimination. Mrs. Ledbetter filed a 1998 suit against a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company plant, located in Gadsen, Alabama after discovering that males working in the same position as she, were receiving a higher salary for doing the same work. In 2007, the ultra conservative led Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that Mrs. Ledbetter had waited too long to sue since she brought the lawsuit near the end of her 19 year career with the respondent. So in the instant case, we had the highest court in the land engaging in the judicial nullification of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and deviously hiding behind their black robes, misinterpreting the original intent of Congress in enacting the Civil Rights Act. More importantly, the new legislation is not limited to gender based discrimination. The legislation amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to also apply to discrimination based upon race, religion, national origin, disability and age. This is a major victory for all Americans, particularly women who have been treated as second class citizens for too long in the United States of America. Women working for major companies, small or large businesses, factories, in the agricultural industry (farms), and foremost in the halls of academia, can take pride in this historic victory for Mrs. Ledbetter even though Mrs. Ledbetter will not be the recipient of any financial award from this bill named in her honor.
How can one justify in 2009, paying women 78 cents on a dollar to a male and for women of color, it’s 65 cents on a dollar to a male? President Obama has placed federal civil rights law enforcement as a top priority in his administration. Therefore it will be incumbent upon the White House to work in conjunction with strict congressional oversight to significantly increase funding, resources, staff training, hiring additional employees with high accountability and performance standards and goals for the EEOC and other agencies that have statutory authority over the issue of equal pay to effectively and aggressively enforce the law. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which is the law of the land, can be an effective instrument in combatting all types of discrimination in employment. Smart small employers should assign an employee in their personnel department, who is highly trained and skilled, the responsibility of making sure there are no pay discrepancies on the basis of sex for employees doing or performing the same or similar work and position responsibilities.
Large corporations, colleges and universities must insure that they have well trained human resource professionals such as a pay equity officer/staff or a compliance officer/staff who will quarterly evaluate, monitor each employee’s job or position responsibilities relative to the actual work being performed. And if any pay inequities exist, that immediate corrective action occur to remedy the problem internally to the mutual satisfaction of subject employee in consultation with the supervisor, manager or director who may be responsible for the pay disparity on the basis of sex for people performing the same or similar job. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Employers should be on top of their game and should implement good personnel practices and procedures that are consistent, objective and fair without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, disability or sexual orientation or risk spending an enormous amount of money on attorney fees trying to defend themselves in court.
In 1974, while employed by the Governor’s Office of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, I investigated three equal pay complaints filed by females alleging pay discrimination on the basis of sex (female) against Allegheny County, Allegheny Minor Judiciary and the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas in which discrimination was found. The three lead complainants, along with the class of females, received substantial monetary awards for these discriminatory acts. These three women, like Ledbetter, should be commended and given kudos for standing up for their civil rights. I encourage all women who are performing the same or similar work to your male counterpart to request a meeting with your pay equity officer, compliance officer, affirmative action manager/administrator to assure that you are being compensated equally to males performing the same jobs or similar position responsibilities. If the employer fails to satisfy your concerns, you should file a charge with EEOC or a 706 State or local Deferral Agency which has a responsibility for enforcing the civil rights laws in the respective states or in local municipalities.
Remember, when skill, effort and responsibility are the same, the pay should be the same when performing the same or similar job or position responsibilities. Women should not be fearful of taking the ‘Bull by the Horn’ because the recent Supreme Court ruling in Crawford v Metropolitan Government of Nashville upheld the retaliation provisions of Title VII anti-retaliation section, 42 U.S.C.