Pros And Cons Of The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

On January 29th, 2009 President Obama signed his first bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Recognition to pass the bill began when Lilly Ledbetter received an anonymous letter stating the male managers and their surprisingly larger salaries. Ledbetter decided to take Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to court, however, the judge ruled in favor of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which then lead to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The act states that as long as workers file their charges within 180 days (or 300 days in some jurisdictions) from the time they received any discriminatory paycheck, they are able to file a claim (Committee On Education & The Workforce Democrats). Although the act is better than the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which only allowed 180 days from the first discriminatory paycheck to file a claim, there are still problems with the act. For instance, if Lilly Ledbetter never received the anonymous letter, she may have never found out about her discriminatory paychecks. Thus, the act protects women only when they know of

Numerous economists suppose that when work experience, education, and occupation are taken into consideration, women earn approximately equal to what men earn (Brittan & Onder 16). However, in recent decades, women have received more education, expanded their experience, and transferred toward higher paying occupations, so wouldn’t this mean that the wage gap would decrease? These economists state that since women, in general, are less involved in the labor market due to having children, providing elder care, this may lead to part-time work, meaning less pay than men, whom usually obtain full-time work. Also, women are also more likely to enter and leave work; women may lose their connection with the work force and may even regress professionally. While there are some factors that help explain the gap, a significant percentage remains unexplained, which is due to bias