Academic

Senate Passes Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

By David S. Cohen

Yesterday, the Senate passed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.  As has been written about many times on this blog, the bill would overturn the Supreme Court’s decision from 2007 that severely restricted equal pay claims by imposing an almost impossible burden on plaintiffs to file their claim when they were first paid unequally, even if they didn’t find out about it until much later.

The final vote was 61-36 (Ted Kennedy did not vote, and there are two open seats (MN and NY)).  All Democrats voted for the bill, and all four female Republican Senators voted for the bill.  So the bottom line is that equal pay for women is opposed by Republican men (except Arlen Specter, who also voted for the bill).  I guess this can be filed under “tell me something I didn’t know.”

- David S. Cohen

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on January 23, 2009 (boomark / email).