The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

As both of my loyal readers know, today, President Obama (I still love saying that) signed The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. This law overturns the Supreme Court's ruling in the Ledbetter case, which, as some of you may remember from my prior blog, held that Ledbetter could not sue for a discriminatory decision made years ago that lessened her retirement benefits.

I have not read the new law. I'm not even sure if it makes sense for me to do so. We really won't really know its impact until the Supreme Court interprets it. And its never a good thing when the Supreme Court interprets a law overruling its prior decision.

So here's what I think the Act does. It shifts the deciding factor of the statute of limitations from when the decision was made, to when the impact of that decision was made. Instead of looking at when the discriminatory decision was made, the statute of limitations would start to run after each paycheck where she was paid less than a man. She still will not be able to sue for the damages she suffered throughout her career, since the Court already decided in Morgan that each paycheck is a discrete act that starts its own limitations period (nerd alert!), but at least she would be able to get to court to make sure future payments are not discriminatory.

While its unclear what this Act will really mean for workers, its a good sign that Congress is watching the Courts with respect to employment discrimination. With all the Bush appointees holding life tenure, that's definitely a good thing for Obama to have accomplished right after his inauguration.