Washington, DC - Representative Gene Green voted in support of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which passed the House of Representatives 250-177. The Senate had previously passed identical legislation 61-36. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will reverse the Supreme Court’s decision that has kept women from pursuing pay discrimination claims. This legislation will now be sent to President Barack Obama, and is likely to be the first major bill that he signs into law.
Representative Green submitted the following statement in support of this legislation:
“Madam Speaker, I rise today as an original cosponsor of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to express my strong support for the bill. I am pleased we are taking up this bill as passed by the Senate so we can finally send it to the President’s desk after previously passing it twice in this chamber.
The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act corrects and clarifies a serious misinterpretation by the Supreme Court in its 2007 ruling in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear. In that 5-4 decision, the majority ruled that Lilly Ledbetter, the lone female supervisor at a tire plant in Gadsden, Ala., did not file her lawsuit against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in the timely manner specified by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The court determined a victim of pay discrimination must file a charge within 180 days of the employer’s decision to pay someone less for an unlawfully discriminatory reason such as race, age, sex, or religion...
The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act clarifies that each paycheck resulting from a discriminatory pay decision constitutes a new violation of the employment nondiscrimination law, as long as the charge is filed within 180-days of the employee receiving the paycheck.
The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act restores workers’ ability to pursue claims of pay discrimination on not only sex, but race, religion, age, or for any other reason. Congress must pass this legislation to help ensure all workers are treated fairly in the workplace and the standard of equal pay for equal work is upheld. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill to end pay discrimination.”
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