What’s the first bill (well, OK, technically the second) that President Obama’s signed into law? The Lilly Ledbetter Act, which allows workers more time to sue their place of employment if they find out that they are being paid less than their peers for equal work. The current law gives someone 180 days from the first underpaid paycheck to sue their company for being underpaid…

I don’t know about you, but most companies (including my place of work)  forbid you to talk to other employees about how much you make. So how would you know, necessarily?

So, great, a victory for everyone, and an alarm bell to employers to treat their employees fairly!

Check out Lilly’s Big Day by Gail Collins in the NYT for some more goodness on the law.

The Lily Ledbetter Act, which expands the current equal pay act, was passed through the Senate by a 61-36 vote.

It’s pretty symbolic, since this will be our feminist president’s first congressional bill he would sign if this passes through the House, which it probably will. His wife Michelle Obama is a big advocate for equal pay and equality in the workplace.

Well, my senators (Babs and Dianne) and my representative (Howie) aren’t new, but if you have n00bs representing you, this may be a good time to introduce yourself — and reacquaint yourself with the old pros. The Lilly ledbetter Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act will be the first votes of the new House of Representatives. The Act basically allows people to file suit against their place of employment if they have been getting shafted on pay, on the basis of their gender.  It passed through the House last year, but Republicans filibustered it, preventing a Senate vote.

Since then, though, the issue of fair pay has been a relatively hot topic on the campaign trail. Michelle Obama has been an outspoken advocate on more than one occasion about equal pay, and Barack has said he would sign the bill if it came to his desk.

If you care about getting paid based on your abilities and not your gender, then go and tell your Representative through the Feminist Majority Foundation or on the House website.

For more background on this, check out this earlier post.

And check out this Obama campaign ad talking about equal pay.

Virginia senators Jim Webb (D) and John Warner (R) introduced the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act on Monday, that would allot four weeks of paid leave for federal workers (fathers and mothers) for the birth or adoption of a child.

Can I just say that right off the bat, the fact that John Warner and Jim Webb introduced this bill is interesting it itself. Warner is a Republican, and providing discrimination protection tends to be a very non-Republican ideal. And 30 years ago, Webb wrote this very long essay in the Washingtonian about why women should not be in the military.

According to NOW, 1.8 million federal workers would be affected by this bill. The act would also let workers use up to 8 weeks of accrued sick time while they’re on leave trough the Family and Medical Leave Act (which is available to all workers in the U.S., and not just federal employees).

On a related note, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, introduced to Congress back in April, was written after a Ledbetter attempted to claim unequal pay at her company.

“Late in my career, someone left a note in my box at work showing my pay versus three males,” she told NPR in a report this morning. “We four were doing the exact same job, and their pay was drastically higher than mine.”

The Supreme Court ruled against her, that she passed the statute of limitations for when she filed the claim (which is 180 days after the unequal pay takes place). The argument, however, is that at most companies, employees aren’t allowed to talk about their salaries, so how would they necessarily know? This puts the responsibilities on managers who probably have a reason to pay some people less than others…

Here in California, our Legislature just passed a bill to ensure equal pay for equal work for both sexes (according to the census, women still only earn only 78 cents / dollar that men earn). Now we just need governor Schwarzenegger to sign it and *wham* us California ladies get equal pay… well, I guess that’s the hopeful version of what may come…

If you feel so inclined, contact your Senators (you get 2 of them, you know) and urge them  to vote.

Photo by Joguldi

While the Senate was deciding on a bill to ensure equal pay for women, Republican presidential nominee John McCain stayed on the campaign trail. While he wasn’t able to vote, he asserted his thoughts on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act:

“I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems,” McCain told reporters yesterday. “This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system.”

He also said that women should simply have more training and education. You know those women with the college education and 5 years of work? Well, they need more training in order to be paid the same as a dude with the same credentials, apparently.
The “more education” argument probably does not apply in the case for the act’s inspiration, Lilly Ledbetter, who spent 19 years at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
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