Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, yesterday was Equal Pay Day in America. It is befitting that it was on a Tuesday because Tuesday is the day on which women's wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week. It is most unfortunate that women continue to be discriminated against by employers, in particular those who routinely pay lower wages for jobs that are dominated by women.
However, today my colleagues in the Senate will have an opportunity to begin the process to restore the intent of Congress as it relates to the fundamental fairness to millions of workers. We will have a chance to override a decision by the Supreme Court last June, in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. In this case, the Court, in a 5 to 4 ruling, reversed a long-standing interpretation, used by nine federal circuits and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), under which the statue of limitations for pay discrimination begins to run each time an employee receives a pay check or other form of compensation. Instead, the Court ruled that the 180-day statute of limitations on filing a discrimination claim with the EEOC begins to run when the original discriminatory decision is made and conveyed to the employee, regardless of whether the pay discrimination continues beyond the 180-day period. This is an unfair and unjust ruling. For employees who are prohibited from having access to data reflecting the wages of other employees, it is impossible for them to ascertain whether they have been a victim of wage discrimination - let alone, to know from the ORIGINAL time of the discriminatory act. In many cases, employees may not know until years later that they have been discriminated against on the basis of pay.
Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to support cloture on the motion to proceed to this important legislation, and to support enactment of this bill. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 will restore the interpretation that the statute of limitations begins to run each time an employee receives a pay check or other form of compensation reflecting the discrimination, otherwise known as the "pay-check accrual" rule. It would ensure that employees who can prove pay discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability will not be forever barred from seeking redress because they did not learn that they were victims of pay discrimination within six months after the discrimination first occurred.
Although women still only earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, we should not be moving backwards. It is simple, this legislation will restore an employee's right to seek restitution against wage discrimination at the time the employee discovers it. In addition, it is important to note that this legislation is not just about gender pay discrimination. In 2007, EEOC received more than 7,000 pay discrimination charges. While some are on the basis of gender, others are on the basis of race, disability, national origin, and age.
Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to do what is right and support cloture and passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
