Pass AB 437 - Ledbetter Equal Pay Bill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w1eSymFBOg
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A pay discrimination fix

California lawmakers should seize an opportunity to correct a flaw in gender-discrimination law.
August 26, 2008

A bill to restore to women (and men) the right to fully recover damages for gender-based pay discrimination got stuck in the U.S. Senate earlier this year, but California has an opportunity to move forward with a corrective measure of its own. Unfortunately, that bill too -- AB 437 by Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) -- is in danger of being blocked by critics who brand it a job killer.

That's absurd. Jones' bill simply makes clear that under state labor and fair-employment laws, an oddly reasoned 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision interpreting federal law does not apply.

And it shouldn't. The 5-4 decision in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. undermined Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by impossibly restricting the period during which a victim of unlawful discrimination can try to get full compensation. The employee has to know she's being discriminated against (most victims are women) and must file within 180 days of the gender-based decision to pay her less than men in the same job. If she discovers the unequal treatment only after it has been perpetrated for years, it's too late. A career's worth of inequity turns into less than half a year's worth of compensation.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-damages26-2008aug26,0,1134821.story