Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Fair Pay Restoration Act, which is currently before the Senate.

On May 29, 2007, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc. After her retirement from Goodyear in 1998, Lilly Ledbetter filed a sex discrimination case against her employer. Ms. Ledbetter claimed that she had been paid significantly less than her male counterparts during her work as one of the few female supervisors at Goodyear. Unfortunately, due to a company policy that prohibited employees from discussing their pay, Ms. Ledbetter couldn't confirm the discrimination until she received an anonymous note that detailed the salaries of three of the male managers. This note confirmed that Ms. Ledbetter had been paid 20 +percent to 40 percent less than the male managers throughout her employment with Goodyear. A jury found that this pay discrepancy was based, at least in part, on sex discrimination. 

Ms. Ledbetter is an example of an employee who has done all that is expected of her. By all reports, she performed her job admirably, the same work being performed by her male counterparts. She raised concerns about her pay level and eventually brought suit against her employer. 

Through this process came the Supreme Court decision which limits an employee's right to collect backpay to 180 days after the issuance of a discriminatory paycheck. This is true even if the employee was unaware of the discrimination or, as in the case of Ms. Ledbetter, was unable to discover proof of such discrimination through the deliberate efforts of her employer. 

The Fair Pay Restoration Act is a return to the rational, reasonable approach that had been applied by Federal circuit courts in most States, including my home State of New Mexico, prior to the Ledbetter decision. Under the previous rule, an employee could bring a claim within 180 days of the last discriminatory paycheck. This bill would also implement a limitation on backpay claims to 2 years, providing businesses a protection against claims that are allowed to accumulate over years and encouraging employees to act with all due diligence in pursuing discrimination claims. The Congressional Budget Office has determined that the Fair Pay Act is unlikely to increase the number of claims brought in discrimination cases. 

We must work to ensure that the courts remain a source of redress for employees many of whom are fighting much larger and better financed employers. Employees should not face unreasonable obstacles in their efforts to pursue a discrimination claim and to seek appropriate remedies. By placing an undue burden on employees to quickly prove discrimination, the Ledbetter decision has negatively altered the use of the courts as a remedy for discriminatory conduct by employers. Employers who are more successful at hampering their employees' efforts to prove discrimination and delay are now afforded more protection than those employers who treat their employees justly under the law. The Fair Pay Restoration Act seeks to restore this equity and to ensure that employees and employers have full and equal access to the courts.