Last year, the Supreme Court made a ridiculous decision that effectively gave corporations the right to continue to discriminate against women and minorities in the area of equal pay for equal work. The case was Ledbetter vs. Goodyear. Lily Ledbetter had worked for Goodyear for 15 years before she learned that she was paid over $6,000 a year less than her male counterparts doing the same job. Ledbetter took the company to court citing a 1964 law outlawing discrimination in wage compensation. She won the case and the jury awarded her damages. But the Supreme Court threw out her judgement. The court said she only had 180 days from the time the discrimination started in which to file a lawsuit. In other words, the court said she had to file suit 15 years before she knew of the pay discrimination.
This was obviously an unjust decision, and certainly not the intent of those that passed the law in 1964. Congress is now in the process of trying to pass a new law that would fix this unfair situation. It is called the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and it is currently being considered by the Senate. The bill would start the clock on filing from the time of the most recent discrimination (the latest discriminitory paycheck).
Naturally, it is a Texan that is carrying the water for the corporations in trying to gut the new bill, and sadly, a woman -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Although she claims to be in favor of equal pay for equal work, Hutchison offered an amendment that would seriously damage the effectiveness of the new bill.
She claims the bill would be unfair to small business. That is just not true. Most small businesses already pay equally. It is the corporate culture that is clinging to the discriminatory pay practices, and that is who she (and other Republicans) are trying to protect.
Hutchison's amendment to the Ledbetter Bill would give victims only 120 days from the time they "should have known of the discrimination". What the hell does that mean? How is anyone supposed to know when someone "should have known"? This simply added another burden on the victim to prove that they not only didn't know, but that they couldn't have known.
This silly amendment would basically have codified the Supreme Court's terrible decision. Fortunately, the amendment was soundly defeated in a 55-40 vote.
But this certainly doesn't inspire faith in Senator Hutchison. She has already said she will be running for governor of Texas in 2010. The current Republican leadership in Austin already sides with the corporations against ordinary citizens in every area. Obviously, even if Hutchison is able to replace Governor Perry, there will be no change. It would be one corporate lackey replacing another.
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UPDATE - The senate vote on the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was 61-36, and the bill was passed without any onerous amendments. Our Texas senators split on the issue. Senator hutchison wound up voting for the bill, while Senator Cornyn voted for his corporate masters and against fair pay for women and minorities.
Thanks for the update. The rationale of these Republicans is so lame sometimes I wonder if all their mothers dropped them on their heads when they were babies. Multiple times. I cannot believe what a collection of callous, mean-spirited, cruel people they are and have all gathered together to try and perpetrate their crap on the rest of us.
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