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Paycheck discrimination and the Supreme Court
November 27, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co is being argued at the US Supreme Court today. [Details, briefs]
Lilly Ledbetter retired after 19 years at the Goodyear company. Then she claimed her employer paid her a smaller salary than it paid male co-workers because of her sex. Her periodic paychecks were based on annual salary reviews.
A jury awarded damages to Ledbetter based on a series of salary decisions going back 19 years.
The 11th Circuit reversed and ordered that Ledbetter's complaint be dismissed.
The problem was with the statute of limitations, which requires an employee to file an EEOC charge within 180 days after an alleged Title VII violation "occurred."
The 11th Circuit held that her claim was time barred because she could not prove intentional discrimination in either (1) the one decision during the limitations period or (2) the last decision preceding the limitation period.
The 11th Circuit said: "We conclude that in the search for an improperly motivated, affirmative decision directly affecting an employee's pay, the employee may reach outside the limitations period created by her EEOC charge no further than the last such decision immediately preceding the start of the limitations period. We do not hold that an employee may reach back even that far; what we hold is that she may reach no further."
My view: It's hard to see how Ledbetter can win this one.
The case really turns on when a violation occurs. Typically this is when the employer has made a decision and then acted on that decision. Once a violation occurs, then the employee has 180 days to file.
I think there are three logical choices for how the Title VII statute of limitations works in the case of paychecks:
- A violation occurs when the employer makes a decision, and if the employee does not file a charge within 180 days of the decision then no future claim can be based on that decision. That's Goodyear's view.
- A violation occurs with each paycheck, and the employee can claim that the amount of each paycheck was based on discriminatory decisions made years ago. That's Ledbetter's view.
- A violation occurs when the employer makes a decision and the decision is communicated to the employee, typically by way of the next paycheck. This is the view advanced by the United States in its amicus brief.
#3 is the way the statute of limitations works in cases involving discharge, failure to hire, failure to promote. I think it works the same way here. Ledbetter says there should be a different approach for paychecks. If so, the statute needs to be reworded.
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