How many of you know what the person working next to you earns? Aren't you just a little bit curious? Salaries have traditionally been a secret, something you don't talk about in polite company. I mean really, how would you react if I walked up and ask, so tell me ... how much DO you make? We just don't talk about it.That is what makes the Ledbetter Supreme Court decision so egregious. Lilly Ledbetter worked at Goodyear Tire & Rubber for 19 years. She was a good employee, got to work on time, did her job day in and day out, and only learned after she retired that she earned considerably less than the men she worked with who were doing the same job.
This should be of interest to men and women, because when women earn less than men it hurts their entire family. It's lost income for everyone living under that roof.
Ledbetter filed a lawsuit, and initially was awarded $3 million in damages. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where by a decision of 5-4 the Justices reversed the lower court ruling.
In a sharply worded dissent Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the court ignored the "real-world characteristics of pay discrimination."
Ginsburg said it was unreasonable to expect Ledbetter and other women to know immediately that their pay was out of line ... [and] that an employee may "have little reason even to suspect discrimination until a pattern develops incrementally and she ultimately becomes aware of" the pay disparity with her male colleagues.Women are fighting back, and included below is a message I received today from the National Women's Law Center:
Dear BAC,Take action! Sign the Fair Play Campaign Pledge, and urge others to do so as well.
I’m a former employee of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. For close to two decades, I was paid less than my male co-workers — even though I was doing the same work they were, and doing it well. The company kept the discrimination quiet and I didn't know about the pay gap until I got an anonymous note about it. Seeking to rectify this injustice, I brought Goodyear to court.
A jury found that Goodyear had discriminated and awarded me more than $3 million in damages. But Goodyear appealed my case all the way to the Supreme Court and got a reversal of the jury verdict by one vote. The Court said I should have filed my complaint within six months of the original act of discrimination — even though at the time I didn't know the discrimination was happening, let alone have enough evidence to complain.My case set a new and dangerous precedent. According to the Court, if pay discrimination isn't challenged within six months, a company can pay a woman less than a man for the rest of the woman's career. I wonder what other forms of discrimination the Supreme Court will permit in the future.
Fortunately, the Senate is now considering the Fair Pay Restoration Act. If it passes, this bill would tell the Supreme Court it got it wrong. The bill would give all employees a better shot at a fair workplace, making it easier to ensure justice for those who have been discriminated against based on sex, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, and age.
My court case is over, but thanks to the National Women’s Law Center and dedicated individuals like you, the fight against pay discrimination continues. Please join us by signing the Fair Pay Campaign Pledge. Help ensure that our daughters and granddaughters have a shot at a fair workplace and a better future.
Sincerely,
Lilly Ledbetter
11 comments:
I'm convinced that we'd see much more pay equity if people would be less secretive about their salaries. Unfortunately, so much of our self-esteem and how we define ourselves as successful or not is tied to salary. We don't want to spill about our salary for fear of being viewed as less valued somehow.
I think you're correct, DCup.
BAC
Signed it, thanks.
That just makes my blood boil.
Signing it,
Tengrain
Managements depend upon and encourage pay secrecy. And it works.
The funny part is why individuals rate themselves according to some personal internal scale while avoiding the truth by probing colleagues for facts.
However, it is easy to defeat this management tactic. Especially these days.
Create a blog for company personnel to anonymously reveal their pay.
Posters can say something like "senior accountant, six years with the company, Peoria office, $xx,xxx salary.
I started a movement like this at a past employer. It resulted in a huge change in the pay system, though it took a couple of years to happen.
But as long as people are silent, management holds the cards.
And why are people silent? Because they fear the truth, especially when it is about themselves.
"As long as people are silent, management holds the cards"
Too true. I wonder if labor could organize itself somehow.....
I signed.
You would think in this day and age, when women are a major part of the workforce in America and many are the sole providers for their families,that this would be a thing of the past. This is one thing that I hope, if Hillary is President, will be rectified.
If we don't get a Democrat in office who will be able to get a few judges in the Supreme Court who actually care about the rule of law, there will be more cases like this that are shot down.
Of course, this isn't something we hear from the main stream media---after all, we have Britney Spears to worry about.
It's definitely a tool of management, perpetrated by their stoolies in HR, to keep one's salary a secret. I can only hope that our signatures make a difference.
Decisions like this should make every woman who votes republican reconsider--there's a reason the Supreme Court voted down Ledbetter, and that reason is repub-appointed justices. Women who vote republican are just deluding themselves.
The standard office procedure is "don't ask, don't tell".
Employees seem to follow this dictum without any restaints caused by law.
If you want to see the end pay imbalances, then all it takes is a little honesty and straightforwardness among employees.
Management has nothing to do with this, nor can management stop employees from discussing pay.
All good suggestions! What makes me crazy is that when women and men have the same education and skill the man eventually makes a lot more than the woman, even if they start out nearly the same. And at the executive level, the higher women rise the greater the gap between their salary and the men they work with. I knew this from haning out with all my feminist friends, but NBC has been doing a series of reports this week on the difference between women and men in areas like education and employment. Their report presented this same information.
It's truly unacceptable.
BAC
I did a post about pay some time ago http://wyldth1ng.blogspot.com/2007/10/money.html
I talk about my paycheck all the time and it does bother people, but if you pay taxes then you pay my wage. My pay is public knowledge and because it is the government they have stats on gender, race, religon, whatever.
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