SUPREME COURT- VICTIMS OF SEX DISCRIMINATION IN PAY MUST COMPLAIN WHEN PAY DECISION IS MADE

The United States Supreme Court’s ruling of May 29, 2008 makes it harder for victims of discrimination in pay to win if they do not sue promptly. This ruling requires that victims of pay discrimination file an EEOC charge of discrimination within 180 days or 300 days after the pay decision is made in order to be able to later sue in federal court. The Court explained the deadline for filing a charge does not start running at the time when the discriminatory paychecks are received because the paycheck only reflects the effects of the prior discriminatory decision. The clock starts running for the employee when the pay decision is made instead.

This decision does not favor victims of pay discrimination who typically are not always certain when the discrimination pay decision is made by the employee. Furthermore, in light of the confidential nature of salaries, victims of pay discrimination are frequently unaware that they are underpaid until much later when they learn of the salaries paid to others in the same position. By then, the relatively short deadline for filing a charge has expired, rendering them unable to sue or recover. Lilly Ledbetter v. The Good-year Tire & Rubber Co., Inc. Case Number 05-1074 (May 29, 2008). [Read the entire court ruling].