14 BIPARTISAN SENATORS WORK TO OVERTURN SUPREME COURT DECISION ON PAY DESCRIMINATION NO AMERICAN SHOULD BE DENIED EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK --- LEDBETTER DECISION UNDERMINES AMERICAN PRINCIPLES

Washington, DC: Today, a bipartisan group of fourteen Senators, led by Senators Kennedyand Specter introduced a bill to overturn the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision in Ledbetterv. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which undermined the basic protection against paydiscrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The decision also undermines paydiscrimination claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination inEmployment Act. The bill would restore the clear intent of Congress that workers must have areasonable time to file a pay discrimination claim after they become victims of discriminatorycompensation. The bill’s co-sponsors are Senators Kennedy, Specter, Harkin, Snowe, Clinton,Mikulski, Obama, Durbin, Dodd, Leahy, McCaskill, Whitehouse, Boxer, Stabenow and Murray. “It’s unacceptable that some victims of ongoing pay discrimination are unable to hold theiremployers accountable,” Senator Kennedy said. “Yet that’s what happened to Lilly Ledbetter. Ihope that all of us, on both sides of the aisle, can join in correcting this obvious wrong.”The supporters of this bill believe that no American should be denied equal pay for equal work.Employees’ ability to provide for their children, save for retirement, and enjoy the benefit oftheir labor should not be limited by discrimination. The Court’s decision undermined thesebedrock principles by imposing unrealistically short time limits on such claims. The HouseCommittee on Education and Labor recently passed the bill’s House counterpart, and it the billis ready for floor action in the House.