Ledbetter V. Goodyear Tire Case Study

The working women in the United States are caught in a “gender gap” when it comes to their paychecks. Almost half of the entire labor force in American is women, but men are consistently paid more for the same work. President Obama addressed this gap as a family issue. The Supreme Court in 2007, heard the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, brought by Lilly Ledbetter, a longtime employee of Goodyear Tire which was a win for women. The United States Senate, on the Republican side of the aisle, chose to fight the Paycheck Fairness Act. Made up mostly men, both the Democrat and Republican Senators, used the gender gap like a game of tennis. Their game was a loss for women and a tie for them.

In a 2014 release the Whitehouse’s web site

Her pay was equal to a man’s when she started working for Goodyear in 1979. When she reached retirement age pay had never reached that of the men who started working the same time she did at the Alabama plant. She brought suit against Goodyear for sexual discrimination in 1998. The case traveled up the Judicial Court System and was brought before the Supreme Court in 2007. On May 29, 2007 the court ruled in her favor. Most women thought that this judgment would change the way that women were treated by companies when it came to payday. Seven years later women were still fighting for equal pay. In 2014, Republicans blocked an Equal Pay

Republicans accused the Democrats of using the issue of equal pay for women as a political move to get their votes in the Congressional election. The Act was a measure to close the gender gap in the workplace. Both Democrats and Republicans confessed to doing what was right for women. The Senator from Nevada, Harry Reid, came to the floor of the Senate to announce, “For reasons known only to them, Senate Republicans don’t seem to be interested in closing wage gaps for working women.” Republicans encountered by saying that there was already laws in place to protect women. They put the blame on the Democrats. Their take was the Democrats were using women to distract people from looking at the health care law. The Paycheck Fairness Act would mandate that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would get pay records from business. President Obama directed the federal contractors to also share their employees pat records. The Republicans responded by reproached Democrats for women living in poverty and falling wages. The Democrats counteracted by pushing for an increase in minimum wage and extended unemployment payments. The Act came to a vote with 53 for Paycheck Fairness and 44 against. This vote was only six votes short of a majority. Senator Reid says that he will bring the Act to the floor again for a vote in hopes of passage.

In conclusion, the three branches of government have different ideas on how to protect