Equal Pay for Women Bill About to Land on Schwarzenegger’s Desk
On Saturday August 30 with scant notice in the media and as bills by the dozen were being debated and voted on, the California Assembly passed and sent to the Governor a bill that speaks volumes about who is in favor of pay equity for women.
http://www.californiaprogressreport....
EXCERPT
CALIFORNIA AB 437 (Jones) passed on a straight party line vote of 47 Democrats in support and 30 Republican Assemblymembers in opposition. This bill, by Dave Jones, the Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, clarifies that, as has been the case in California for decades, the time period for alleging unequal pay and other illegal discrimination runs from the date of each payment of a discriminatory wage or other unlawful act. The State Senate passed the legislation earlier in the week with a vote of 22 to 17.
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/...
Web Report on Assembly Bill 437
VIDEO
Sacramento) – Wage discrimination based upon gender, race or sexual orientation is illegal, but a recent court ruling could make it harder to win a pay discrimination case. In this Assembly Report we learn about legislation (Assembly Bill 437) authored by Assemblymember Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) that ensures that victims of pay discrimination continue to have a fair opportunity to seek redress in the courts for violations of state law.
Capitol Office: State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento, CA 94249-0009 -- (916) 319-2009 -- Fax: (916) 319-2109
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The Los Angeles Times minced no words in an editorial a week ago in support of AB 437:
"A bill to restore to women (and men) the right to fully recover damages for gender-based pay discrimination got stuck in the U.S. Senate earlier this year, but California has an opportunity to move forward with a corrective measure of its own.
Jones' bill makes clear that under state labor and fair-employment laws, an oddly reasoned 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision interpreting federal law does not apply.
"And it shouldn't. The 5-4 decision in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. undermined Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by impossibly restricting the period during which a victim of unlawful discrimination can try to get full compensation. The employee has to know she's being discriminated against (most victims are women) and must file within 180 days of the gender-based decision to pay her less than men in the same job. If she discovers the unequal treatment only after it has been perpetrated for years, it's too late. A career's worth of inequity turns into less than half a year's worth of compensation.
"The state bill already has been pared down to remove language that would have clarified how and when to file an action under California law to recover damages for gender pay discrimination; as presently worded, it would simply make clear that the Ledbetter reasoning is the wrong model for interpreting state labor law.
Democratic Convention Campaigning: Equal Pay For Equal Work
Legal Case - Ledbetter paid 40% less than her male counterparts [ May 2007 U.S. Supreme Court by one vote overturned decades of precedent in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. ]