The Lilly Ledbetter Case

Discrimination and harassment are serious problems in the workplace today. People are discriminated against and harassed about their sex, religion, race, weight, handicap, etc. For me, these issues are very unethical, and that’s all there is to it. Really, what does a person or a business gain from committing these selfish acts towards others? I guess a laugh here and there from people listening in on the harassment of a co-worker. I personally don’t see what anyone can gain from any of this and surely there is not one company out there who could gain anything from these two issues. Although, I do see where a company could lose a lot of money and also ruin the good reputation they once had.
A good issue to look at for discrimination is the Lilly Ledbetter case. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is named after a 70 year old woman, who worked for Goodyear Tire Company and was paid far less than her male co-workers for doing the same job day in and day out (Pickert 2009). She also experienced sexual harassment many times during her employment with Goodyear Tire. At one

Ledbetter fought and won the case being awarded $3.3 million. Only to have it reduced to around $300,000.00 by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court also voted 5-4 against Ledbetter, that she was not entitled the compensation because she filed her claim more than 180 days after receiving her first discriminating paycheck (Pickert 2009).
The court then sent stated that this was an issue for Congress to “clear up”. Clear up is just what Congress did. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first piece of legislation that President Obama signed into law after taking Office. This law states that workers discriminated on the basis of gender have a fair chance to sue their employer, and that each discriminated pay check, a person has 180 days to file suit (Pickert 2009). Not only after the first